The studio

Tyler Perry Studios is headquartered in Atlanta. Its founding established Perry as the first African American to outright own a major film production studio — a claim repeated across major outlets and attributed here to those reports rather than stated as settled fact.

Opening the lot to other filmmakers

Through 34th Street Films, a production arm of the studio, Perry guides the work of other filmmakers. That detail matters more than the headline: a studio that only houses its owner is a career, and a studio that houses other people is an industry.

What is being built now

In June 2021, Perry and T. D. Jakes announced they were buying more than 130 acres in southwest Atlanta, including a proposed publicly accessible entertainment district with theaters, retail shops, restaurants, and a Georgia film and television museum. In 2026 the studio was building a virtual production facility in Atlanta.

Why he sits in this index

Atlanta's film economy is unusual because Black creators here do not only work in it — they own the lots. Perry is the clearest case, and the one that changed what other Atlanta creators believed was possible.