The 50 Smartest People In Hollywood

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.

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