5 Best TV Shows Created By Tyler Perry, Ranked

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Few people who run a full-blown multimedia empire can claim to have built it entirely themselves, but Tyler Perry certainly can. He self-financed his first play, and even though it was a financial failure, Perry persisted. Soon enough, he was a successful playwright, which he parlayed into being a successful – and self-funded — filmmaker. Eventually, Perry added successful TV show creator to his list of accomplishments. And while his films, in particular Perry's Madea movies, arguably remain what he is most known for, his television output has come to take up just as much of his creative time and energy in recent years.

Like his plays and films, Perry's TV shows represent a wide array of genres and styles. Soap operas seem to be the arena he most frequently works in on the small screen and encompass some of his most popular shows. But his comedies also deserve their due, the best of which can be placed among his most beloved dramas. Below are what we feel are Perry's five best shows, culled from reviews, fan discussions, and our own editorial opinion. 

• Cast: Taylor Polidore, Crystal Stewart, Ricco Ross
• Creator: Tyler Perry 
• Rating: TV-MA
• Years aired: 2024-present
• Where to watch: Netflix

Kimmie (Taylor Polidore Williams) is an exotic dancer with an abusive boss stuck in a seemingly inescapable situation. Mallory (Crystle Stewart) is a successful hair care company heiress. The two women normally wouldn't enter one another's orbit, except that's exactly what happens when Kimmie tries getting a job at Mallory's company. But their connection is revealed to go deeper than that, and that they have a lot more in common — especially in terms of their respective struggles — than either could've ever thought possible.

With the last batch of Season 2 episodes days away from hitting Netflix as of this writing, "Beauty in Black" was praised as "a propulsive and addicting drama about a family who will stop at nothing to get what's theirs" by Decider. It was the first show released under Perry's deal with Netflix, and considering a third season has already been greenlit, it's safe to say that the streamer has been happy with the show's performance thus far. It's the perfect time to jump in if you haven't already been watching, especially as its one of Perry's most bingeable shows.

• Cast: LaVan Davis, Cassi Davis, Allen Payne
• Creator: Tyler Perry
• Rating: TV-PG
• Years aired: 2006-present
• Where to watch: The Roku Channel, BET (select seasons only)

Among the untold truths of Tyler Perry is that his first foray into television was a fairly traditional sitcom. Said sitcom, "House of Payne," remains one of Perry's best shows thus far. LaVan Davis, who had previously starred in several of Perry's films and plays, stars as Payne family patriarch Curtis Payne. He oversees a large, multi-generational household full of laughter and love, but also experiences plenty of heady drama — the combination of which makes "House of Payne" feel different than a lot of more by-the-numbers sitcoms.

The popularity of "House of Payne" speaks for itself. After Season 1 ran in syndication, TBS picked up the show and ran it for another five seasons. Then, following an eight-year hiatus, "House of Payne" returned in 2020 on its new home on BET where it has added another six seasons and counting. With 12 seasons and 400 episodes thus far, it remains the longest-running African American-starring sitcom, a record unlikely to be broken anytime soon. The show has also gotten plenty of love from the NAACP Image Awards, with 16 wins across 23 nominations.

• Cast: Amanda Clayton, Matt Cook, Edwina Findley
• Creator: Tyler Perry
• Rating: TV-MA
• Years aired: 2014-2020
• Where to watch: Currently unavailable to stream

It needs to be said off the bat that "If Loving You Is Wrong," Tyler Perry's five-season soap opera that was loosely inspired by his film "The Single Moms Club," is currently unavailable to stream almost entirely save for a stray special here and there. And that's extremely frustrating, as its place on this list obviously shows that it is one of Perry's best shows to date. But it still deserves to be celebrated in spite of its lack of availability, and here's hoping that it'll find its way back on a streamer sometime soon.

As for the show itself, "If Loving You Is Wrong" can be considered Perry's take on "Desperate Housewives," at times just as campy but admittedly more serious than funny. It follows five married couples who all live on the same street, almost none of whom behave — and quite often, misbehave with one another. Its premiere set records for the Oprah Winfrey Network, and proved irresistible for both fans of Perry's brand of soapy melodrama and those who enjoy shows that expose the tawdry underbelly of seemingly idyllic suburban communities.

• Cast: Crystal R. Fox, Reneé Lawless, Tika Sumpter
• Creator: Tyler Perry
• Rating: TV-14
• Years aired: 2013-2021
• Where to watch: Tubi, MovieSphere+ (via Amazon Prime Video)

One of Tyler Perry's longest-running soap operas at 196 episodes across eight seasons, the popularity of "The Haves and the Have Nots" is unquestionable. It's also one of Perry's most ambitious small screen projects, with over 20 main characters to keep track of in a sprawling story that follows four different families of varying degrees of wealth and power. Tika Sumpter, best known for playing Maddie in "Sonic the Hedgehog," is among the show's many breakout performers as Candace Young.

The Oprah Winfrey Network's first foray into scripted television, "The Haves and the Have Nots" not only helped make OWN a force to reckon with in that space, but also put Perry on the map as a producer of dramatic television. It wasn't his first TV drama, but it was leagues ahead of his previous efforts and remains among his best writing on both the small and big screens. Winfrey herself saw fit to make a statement about the show upon its conclusion in 2021, saying (via Deadline), "I thank Tyler, the incredible cast, the tireless crew and every single viewer who watched with bated breath each week."

• Cast: Devale Ellis, Crystal Renee Hayslett, Nzinga Imani
• Creator: Tyler Perry
• Rating: TV-MA
• Years aired: 2022-present
• Where to watch: Paramount+, BET+

Not to say that Tyler Perry never mixes genres, because he certainly does. But for the most part, when one of his shows picks a lane, it tends to stay pretty firmly in it. The fact that "Zatima" is one of the biggest exceptions to this — and also the best show he has created so far — doesn't seem to be a coincidence. Acting as both a drama and a comedy in fairly equal measure frees him up creatively, and the results speak for themselves. 

A spin-off of Tyler Perry's "Sistas" — which, to be fair, was also a dramedy, but an inferior one — "Zatima" is the portmanteau name of the couple that anchor the show. Zac (Devale Ellis) and Fatima (Crystal Renee Hayslett) are setting off on their new life together, but needless to say, it's not without its conflicts. By mostly zeroing in on one couple rather than trying to balance the stories of multiple pairs as most Perry shows do, "Zatima" has a focus and a polish that many of his other relationship-based shows lack. It's something he should do more often with other already-established fan favorite couples from his other series.