50 Fun Facts About Madea

Which 2005 film, adapted from a Tyler Perry stage play, gave Madea her big-screen debut?

Diary of a Mad Black Woman was made for about $5.5 million, raised partly from stage-show ticket sales, and took more than $50 million at the box office.

Southerners know the name Madea as a shortened, affectionate form of which two-word phrase?

Mother dear, run together in Southern speech, gives Madea her name. Tyler Perry based the character on his own mother and an aunt.

In her first film, Madea takes which tool to the living room of her granddaughter's cheating husband?

A chainsaw lets Madea wreck the mansion's living room, a rampage that puts her in front of a judge as a repeat offender.

Which Modern Family star plays T.T., Madea's serial-killer cellmate, in Madea Goes to Jail?

Sofía Vergara had already worked with Tyler Perry a year earlier, playing the brick-throwing best friend in Meet the Browns.

Which real TV personality is Madea's anger management counselor in Madea Goes to Jail?

Dr. Phil gets nowhere with her: the sessions go badly, and Madea is soon in trouble again over a stolen parking space.

In Madea's Family Reunion, what does Lisa throw in her fiancé's face, as Madea taught her?

A pot of hot grits scalds Carlos, and Lisa follows up with a cast-iron frying pan while Madea listens outside and laughs.

Which former heavyweight champion plays Roy, the widow's secret lover, in A Madea Family Funeral?

Mike Tyson turns up at the very end, when the widow Vianne cheerfully leaves for Las Vegas with his character.

Playing Madea in Madea's Witness Protection earned Tyler Perry a Razzie nomination in which category?

Worst Actress was one of several Razzie nominations for the film, which also put Perry and his drag costume up for Worst Screen Couple.

Which comedy veteran plays George Needleman, the executive who hides from the mob at Madea's house?

Eugene Levy's character runs the finances of a firm that proves to be a mob-backed Ponzi scheme, in the first Madea film not adapted from a play.

Which talk show host reveals on air that Mr. Brown is not the father of Madea's daughter Cora?

Maury Povich reads the paternity result at the end of Madea's Big Happy Family, overturning what Madea announced in the play Madea's Class Reunion.

What is the real first name of Madea Simmons, the grandmother Tyler Perry has played since 1999?

Mabel Earlene Simmons is the character's full name, and the nickname is sometimes shortened even further, to Ma.

Joe Simmons, the wisecracking old man also played by Tyler Perry, is what relation to Madea?

Her brother Joe is also the father of Brian, the level-headed nephew, which gives Perry three members of one family to play.

Which gospel singer plays Cora, Madea's daughter, opposite her real-life husband as Mr. Brown?

Tamela Mann and her husband David carried Cora and Mr. Brown from the stage plays into the films and then into the sitcom Meet the Browns.

A Madea Homecoming brought Madea out of retirement in 2022 on which streaming service?

Netflix announced her return jointly with Tyler Perry, who had planned to retire the character after a farewell film and stage tour.

Tyler Perry, the creator of Madea, was born in which city before moving to Atlanta around 1990?

New Orleans gave Perry a childhood he has called a living hell, with weekly church services as his one refuge.

Which actress plays Nikki, the foster child a judge makes Madea take in, in Madea's Family Reunion?

Keke Palmer's Nikki arrives disrespectful after a string of uncaring foster homes, and Madea pushes her to outwork everyone who wronged her.

Which celebrated poet and memoirist plays Aunt May, a cousin of Madea, in Madea's Family Reunion?

Maya Angelou's Aunt May helps gather the feuding relatives at an old slave shack where their ancestors lived, to shame them into treating each other better.

Why does Madea drive her car straight through a fast-food restaurant in Madea's Big Happy Family?

Breakfast was no longer served by the time the young manager took her order, and that manager turns out to be the ex of Madea's grandnephew Byron.

In A Madea Homecoming, sitcom matriarch Agnes Brown of Mrs. Brown's Boys flies in from which country?

Ireland's Agnes Brown is played in drag by her creator Brendan O'Carroll, which makes the film a meeting of two cross-dressed matriarchs.

Which actress plays April, the hard-drinking singer in the 2009 Madea film I Can Do Bad All by Myself?

Taraji P. Henson's April, who sings at Club Indigo, has three children left on her hands when Madea catches them breaking into her house and delivers them to their estranged aunt.

In which city did Madea make her stage debut when I Can Do Bad All by Myself opened in 1999?

Chicago hosted the opening, but that staging was never recorded; the version sold on DVD was filmed in Washington, D.C., in 2002.

Tyler Perry, the man who plays Madea, legally changed his first name at 16 from what?

Emmitt was the name he shared with the abusive man who raised him, and Perry changed it to put distance between them.

Which cousin of Madea steals candy back from trick-or-treaters in Boo! A Madea Halloween?

Aunt Bam's actress had turned up years earlier in Madea's Family Reunion as a different relative, Aunt Sarah.

Which future Oscar winner plays Ellen, a former addict turned minister, in Madea Goes to Jail?

Viola Davis plays the minister who helps women off the streets and teaches the prison class where Madea tells inmates to stop acting like victims.

In Madea Goes to Jail, Madea takes a forklift to a car that stole her parking spot at which store?

Kmart's car park is where Madea wrecks the other driver's car, and this time there is no escape: she is arrested that night and sent to prison.

At the start of Madea Goes to Jail, Madea walks free because the arresting officers forgot to do what?

The officers never read her Miranda rights, so the judge, unable to lock her up, sends her to anger management instead.

Which Cosby Show cast member plays Candy, the inmate Madea protects, in Madea Goes to Jail?

Keshia Knight Pulliam, once little Rudy Huxtable, plays a woman whose conviction is overturned with Madea's, making them two of the Georgia Seven.

Madea's Destination Wedding flies Madea and her family to a resort ceremony in which island nation?

The Bahamas is the setting, though Madea, with her long criminal record, first has to get through the passport office.

Which stand-up comedian plays Buddy, the father-in-law visiting for the holidays, in A Madea Christmas?

Larry the Cable Guy's Buddy is taken for a Klansman by another guest after he is spotted with a bedsheet over his head.

Which rapper plays Byron, the grandnephew on probation, in Madea's Big Happy Family?

Bow Wow's Byron learns at a family dinner that the woman he grew up calling his sister is the one who actually gave birth to him.

In the cartoon Madea's Tough Love, a judge sentences Madea to community service at what kind of place?

A youth center is where the animated Madea serves her sentence, and she ends up saving it from a mayoral candidate who wants it torn down.

Boo! A Madea Halloween grew out of a made-up Madea movie joked about in which Chris Rock comedy?

Top Five showed a fictitious Madea Halloween film as a gag in 2014, and two years later Tyler Perry made it for real.

In Boo! A Madea Halloween, Joe dresses up as what to frighten Madea and her friends?

A clown costume is Joe's idea of a joke, and later a frat boy dressed the same way gets knocked out cold by him.

Which former Disney Channel star plays Rain, a friend of Tiffany, in Boo! A Madea Halloween?

Bella Thorne's Rain is one of the friends hauled off in a fake murder arrest, staged to scare the teenagers into behaving.

In A Madea Family Funeral, Tyler Perry plays a fourth role, Madea's wheelchair-using sibling named what?

Heathrow claims to be a war hero, though Madea says he lost his legs after flirting with a mobster's girlfriend.

What is the family gathering to celebrate in A Madea Family Funeral before a sudden death changes plans?

A wedding anniversary, the couple's 40th, was meant to be a surprise party; instead Madea is asked to organise a burial within two days.

Which star plays Brenda in Meet the Browns, where Madea appears only in a televised police chase?

Angela Bassett leads the film as a laid-off factory worker who takes her children to Georgia to bury a father she never knew.

Which studio released every Madea film shown in cinemas, from her 2005 debut to A Madea Family Funeral?

Lionsgate's run ended with that 2019 film; when Madea returned three years later, it was on a streaming service instead of in cinemas.

In Madea's Witness Protection, which Whoopi Goldberg film inspires Madea's trip to New York in disguise?

Ghost gives George the idea, and Madea strolls in posing as a wealthy client named Precious Jackson to move the stolen money.

In Madea's Witness Protection, where does Madea quietly send a share of the stolen charity money?

Her own bank account gets a cut, which Madea passes off to the manager as a thirteenth charity.

Mablean Ephriam, the judge in Madea's first two films, presided over which daytime TV show?

Divorce Court had Ephriam on the bench for seven seasons, from 1999 to 2006, though she had never served as a judge before the show.

After Madea wrecks a mansion in her first film, the judge gives the repeat offender which punishment?

House arrest does not hold her for long: in the sequel she breaks its terms to fetch medicine for Joe and lands back in court.

In Madea's first film, her granddaughter Helen comes home to find all her belongings packed where?

A U-Haul truck holds everything she owns, and its driver, Orlando, later becomes the man Helen agrees to marry.

A Madea Christmas sends Madea to the fictional farm town of Bucktussle, which is in which state?

Alabama's Bucktussle is in trouble because a new dam has cut off its water, leaving corn farmers and other residents out of work.

Boo! A Madea Halloween was shot on which old Army base that Tyler Perry bought for his studio?

Fort McPherson's old soldiers' quarters were dressed as sets for the film, shot soon after Perry bought 330 acres of the base.

Madea shows up in the pilot of which Tyler Perry sitcom as foster parent to a schoolgirl named Nikki?

House of Payne's Curtis Payne takes against Madea in the pilot, then has nightmares about her, including one in which they are married.

In the Madea spin-off Joe's College Road Trip, which historically Black school does B.J. finally pick?

Morehouse wins out over Pepperdine after a drive across the country in Joe's Buick convertible, a car he calls Ruby.

Which actress plays Helen, the granddaughter who moves in with Madea, in Madea's first film?

Kimberly Elise drew praise even from Roger Ebert, who gave the film one star and called the Madea character fatal to it.

Which actress plays Shirley, the niece with a secret cancer diagnosis, in Madea's Big Happy Family?

Loretta Devine's Shirley keeps trying to break the news to her squabbling children over dinner, and only manages it from a hospital bed.

In A Madea Homecoming, Madea's family heads out to dinner at which real seafood restaurant chain?

Red Lobster is also where Cora unknowingly hands out cannabis sweets from Madea's purse, thinking they are ordinary candy.