Tyler Perry Gets Candid with Gayle King About Race, Helping Others and More in LinkedIn “Conversations” Series

To help businesses engage in long-avoided conversations about race, LinkedIn has tapped mogul/philanthropist Tyler Perry as the guest editor for its Conversations for Change discussion series for the week.

To kick off the partnership, the social-networking site posted a wide-ranging interview with Perry conducted by “CBS This Morning” anchor Gayle King, in which he discusses his own path to success in Hollywood, the guiding principles that got him there, how he conducted business during the pandemic and what’s next in his professional career.

“Right now, in my professional life, it is absolutely 100 percent about grabbing everybody I can, teaching them everything that I know. And saying, okay, I’m going to give you all these tools I’ve learned to teach you to fish,” Perry told King. “And if I can get 10 more Tyler Perrys, in their own way, I think there will be a lot less conversation about “Oscars so white” and about things changing and diversity. Because there will be people who have built their own islands and are able to support an ecosystem that supports other generations of people from all races.”

Perry’s interview with King went live Feb. 8. and set the tone for the week in which the billionaire director, actor, screenwriter, producer and philanthropist will work with LinkedIn’s editorial team to curate content across different channels on such subjects as equity, inclusion and representation in the workplace.

Perry’s rags-to-riches story, in addition to how he reaches back to help others in his field, are among the reasons he was selected as guest editor for this project, Daniel Roth, LinkedIn’s Editor-in-Chief said in a video that ran before the Gayle King interview.

“Tyler Perry is an incredible example of someone who broke through so many challenges that would have stopped anyone from being able to achieve success,” Roth said. “He had to do everything…he didn’t have the network. He didn’t know anyone in the industry.

“What’s amazing about Tyler is that he brought people with him,” Roth said. “His workforce in Atlanta… he invests and hires people in an unusual way because he came up in an unusual way.”

While diversity has become a corporate buzzword in recent years, Perry told Gayle King, inclusion has always been top-of-mind at Tyler Perry Studios and his businesses since their inception.

“Even before diversity was a buzzword, I’ve been trying to hire people that look like me—that never had opportunities in this business,” Perry told King. “So that’s always been tremendously important to me and making sure that the door is open for everyone.”

Conversations for Change, a content and community discussion series, throughout the month will showcase videos produced by Nadia Hallgren, who directed Michelle Obama’s documentary “Becoming.” The videos will feature Black professionals across several industries discuss achieving success, the obstacles they faced, and why diversity matters.

Among the notable Black professionals to be featured on LinkedIn this week for the inaugural Conversations for Change series include Dr. Bernice King, CEO of the King Center in Atlanta; Carla Harris, vice chairman and managing director at Morgan Stanley; and Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to Be an Antiracist” and founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research

Check out LinkedIn’s Conversations for Change series as well as WATCH Perry’s full interview with King.