7. TYLER PERRY
AGE 38
JOB TITLE /Actor/director/writer/producer
SMART BECAUSE When
Hollywood studios passed
on him, he decided to pass
them by. For 10 years, Perry
has built a dedicated black,
pro-faith audience with his
''chitlin circuit'' plays and parlayed
himself into a powerful
brand. Almost every movie he's
made — e.g., Diary of a Mad
Black Woman, Why Did I Get
Married? — has opened at No. 1,
proving that his name above the
title can generate millions. Now
he's using his clout to create a
self-sustaining empire, including
his own studio in Atlanta and a
$200 million TV deal with TBS.
The film industry still doesn't seem
to know what to do with him — he has yet to direct or
star in a major studio movie — but Perry may be better
off staging his own party rather than waiting for an
invitation to theirs. He clearly knows something they
don't.
WHO'S THE BOSS? Perry owns all his films and
plans to broadcast them on his own network one day.
