The Paley Center for Media announced on Wednesday that Tyler Perry will receive the highest honor at its Paley Honors gala in Beverly Hills on December 4.
The event will celebrate Perry’s extensive career in media, highlighting his production of over 2,000 episodes of television and direction, writing and production of 28 feature films. Since 2019, he has also operated Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
Maureen J. Reidy, president and CEO of the Paley Center for Media, spoke on Perry receiving the honor.
“Through his acclaimed and prolific body of work, Tyler Perry has solidified his place as one of media’s greatest and most impactful figures,” she said in a statment. “With each new project, he continues to move our industry, and our culture, forward, and it is our great privilege to present Tyler with our highest honor, the Paley Honors Award, on Dec. 4.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are among those in the Paley Honors Tribute Host Committee leading the celebrations of the event honoring their close friend.
Whoopi Goldberg, Gayle King, Taraji P. Henson, George Lucas, Kerry Washington, Debra L. Lee, Mellody Hobson, Matt Johnson, Jeffrey Katzenberg and more are also on the committee.
Perry, 54, expressed gratitude for the recognition from the Paley Center in his own statement, saying: “Throughout my career, I have strived to bring people together and to give a voice to those often underrepresented in media.”
“Media has served as a vital platform for this mission, and I’m honored to receive this award from the Paley Center for Media, an organization that has dedicated itself to spotlighting the power and importance of media,” he added, via the Hollywood Reporter
Perry has been notably supportive of Harry and Markle, offering his home a safe haven after they stepped down from working as senior royals in 2020. He is the godfather to their daughter, Lilibet, 3. The couple are also parents to Archie, 5.
He initially reached out to the “Suits” alum when she married into the royal family in 2018. He told her he was praying for her “and that he understood what this meant, and that he could only imagine what it was like,” while offering for her to call him whenever she needed, due to the stress of the situation, Meghan told the Cut in 2022.
“Every day that they were there, I looked to see if anything’s happening online. Nothing,” he said in an episode of “Let’s Talk Off-Camera with Kelly Ripa” in November 2023. “They don’t even know. So weeks and weeks they were there. They were so happy. It was such a beautiful moment.”
When the couple finally put roots down in their permanent home in Montecito, California, a source told People that they were extremely thankful for Perry’s compassion.
“They have endless gratitude to him for helping them during a complicated time,” a source told the outlet. “With COVID and as they were stepping back from their royal duties, he provided them a safe haven.”
When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their daughter, Lilibet, in June 2021, they asked Perry to be her godfather, a role he first revealed on their Netflix documentary, “Harry & Meghan.”
He recalled the couple getting “pretty serious” on a phone call when he was asked. “I go, ‘OK, what’s going on?’ They said, ‘Well, we’d like for you to be Lili’s godfather.’ I go, ‘Whoa.’ I had to take a minute to take that in. And I thought, ‘I’d be honored. I’d absolutely be honored.’ “
Perry would accept the role on one condition, however — if he didn’t have to go to London.
“I called them back and go, ‘Uh, hold on a second — does this mean we gotta go over [to the UK] and do all of that in church with [the royal family] and figure all that out? ‘Cause I don’t wanna do that,’” Perry said in the docuseries. “‘Maybe we can do a little private ceremony here [in the US] and let that be that, and if you have to do it there, then that’s OK.’”
Princess Lilibet was christened in a small ceremony at Harry and Meghan’s Montecito home in 2023. Perry flew in for the ceremony from his home in Atlanta with a 10-person gospel choir that sang “Oh Happy Day” and “This Little Light of Mine,” a song that was played at Meghan and Harry’s 2018 Windsor Castle wedding.