Tyler Perry is the highest paid man in entertainment

Actor, writer, director and producer Tyler Perry (pictured), is Hollywood’s highest paid man after earning US$130 million from May 2010 to May 2011, according to Forbes.com.

Perry, whose films rarely find an audience outside the US, recently helmed an adaptation of stage play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, which starred Whoopi Goldberg, Thandie Newton and Janet Jackson.

Perry had his Hollywood break with 2005 film Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which he created as a stage play. He dressed in drag to portray tough-talking family matriarch Madea, a crowd-pleasing role.

That movie led to a number of sequels, and most recently Perry has seen success producing the television show Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, which runs on TBS (Turner Broadcasting System).