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A MARTA bus driver fell asleep at the wheel on Sept. 7, crossed lanes in Dunwoody, and crashed into a tree. He and two passengers were injured. Police later cited him; MARTA pulled him from service.
AtlantaFi.com talked to a woman who saw the crash. “I actually was riding my bike down Peachford and I saw this bus rumbling onto the shoulder of the road and into the trees,” Rebecca Hines said. “It was scary.”
Here’s the video:
The wreck happened at North Shallowford Road and Peachford Road. A crash report and onboard video show the 58-year-old driver stopped at the intersection, folded his hands across his stomach, and tipped his head back.
MARTA Driver Falls Asleep: What Happened
His foot came off the brake. The bus rolled forward, crossed traffic, dropped over a curb and down an embankment, and struck a tree.
The tree smashed through the windshield, then fell onto several empty parked cars. A tow truck later dragged the bus out of the ditch.
Who was hurt
Three people were on the bus.
- The driver had deep cuts on his face and left arm and a possible broken leg and pinkie. He went to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
- The passenger behind him was found on the floor with back and hip pain.
- A third rider reported knee pain.
Police have not released names. The driver told officers he did not remember the crash and only woke up as the bus left the road. One passenger thought it might have been a medical episode.
Charges and MARTA’s response
Dunwoody police charged the driver with distracted driving and failure to maintain lane. They did not arrest him.
MARTA took him off the road at once and said he will stay off duty until the investigation is done.
“The safety of our riders and employees is our highest priority, and an incident like this is unacceptable,” the agency said. “Following the incident, the operator was immediately pulled from service and will remain so until an exhaustive investigation is complete.”
Video from inside the bus shows him dropping his head and taking his hands off the wheel more than once. An earlier alert after he missed a green turn did not keep him awake.
Still unanswered
Authorities have not named the driver or the two riders. MARTA has not said whether fatigue, a medical issue, or a policy breach caused the crash, or whether the driver will return to work.
The intersection is North Shallowford at Peachford in Dunwoody. Check MARTA alerts if you use that route.
Final Word
As the city lights up with yet another special event this weekend, remember: Safe driving is the real treat. For more tips on navigating safely around the city, read our Atlanta Traffic Guide.
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Porsha Williams says she underwent an emergency partial hysterectomy in May 2026 after doctors found 21 uterine fibroids, including one the size of a cantaloupe.
In an exclusive CBS Mornings interview with Gayle King, the Real Housewives of Atlanta star described the speed of the diagnosis, the shock of waking up after surgery, and why she is speaking publicly now.
Porsha Williams Says She Underwent Emergency Partial Hysterectomy Due To Uterine Fibroids
“It all happened so fast. It really didn’t hit me until I woke up in the hospital bed,” Williams said.
The conversation, posted by CBS Mornings on September 18, 2026, is part of a broader day of candor: Williams also published a first-person essay in Glamour about the years of treatments she tried in order to keep her fertility, and the grief of losing that choice at 45.
A condition she first learned about while pregnant
Williams has lived with fibroids since her late 20s. She said she had barely heard of them until she was trying to have a child. A doctor found a fibroid during pregnancy-related exams. By four months, she said, the growth had outgrown the baby. She miscarried.
She later had a myomectomy, then welcomed her daughter, Pilar, in 2019 — a pregnancy she has long called her rainbow baby. Fibroids returned during that pregnancy as well. In her final month she was on bed rest while fibroids degenerated. She later underwent uterine fibroid embolization, a procedure meant to shrink fibroids while leaving the uterus in place, and believed the problem had been solved.
It had not.
Symptoms she blamed on perimenopause
At 45, after a divorce and while raising her daughter, Williams assumed she was finished having children. When heavy bleeding, long cycles, migraines, and fatigue returned, she attributed them to perimenopause.
The turning point was almost accidental. She accompanied a friend to a fertility appointment about egg freezing and asked the doctor to examine her, too.
“She started looking into, you know, doing the exam, and she went silent. And I looked at the screen, and all I could see was, like, black, and then I started seeing some circular lines. And I’m like, ‘Not again. Not again.’ They had come back,” Williams told King.
A fertility specialist was “in shock” at what a vaginal exam showed and sent her immediately for an MRI. Imaging found more than 15 large fibroids, plus endometriosis and a problem with the uterine lining. Surgery followed about two weeks later, in May 2026. In the operating room, doctors found 21 fibroids. The largest was compared to a cantaloupe. The procedure was a partial hysterectomy: her uterus was removed; her ovaries were left in place.
Williams has said she did not have a real choice. In Glamour, she wrote that the surgery saved her life and that her quality of life has improved “100 percent” — migraines, iron problems, bladder pressure, and other symptoms eased. She also wrote that she woke up thinking a part of her was gone, and that she had to grieve the possibility of more biological children.
Why she is talking now
Williams framed the interview as a warning against self-diagnosis.
“We have to stop diagnosing ourselves. There are so many different things when it comes to a woman that you need to get checked, and we need to learn to advocate for ourselves,” she said. “If I saw somebody like me sitting here with you talking about fibroids, it would have clicked to ask for it. I had to ask my doctor to check for fibroids after something was wrong.”
That message lands on well-documented disparities. Uterine fibroids are extremely common. By age 50, more than 80 percent of Black women have ultrasound evidence of fibroids, compared with nearly 70 percent of white women. Black women tend to develop them earlier, with more numerous and larger growths and more severe symptoms. Hysterectomy has long been a frequent treatment, though patterns of who receives uterus-sparing procedures versus removal have shifted over time depending on the study and insurance population.
Williams has been public about miscarriage, infertility, and fibroids before. What she had kept private until this year was how far the disease progressed after she thought she was done treating it — and how quickly “maybe this is just perimenopause” became emergency surgery.
She is still working. Credits mentioned around the interview include The Traitors and Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip. The health story she is telling now is less about a franchise than about a condition many women, especially Black women, live with for years before anyone names it on a screen.
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R&B singer Lloyd delivered a high-energy halftime set as the Atlanta Dream dismantled the Connecticut Sun 103-59 on September 17, 2026, at Gateway Center Arena in College Park.
The Dream returned from the FIBA World Cup break with a statement win. Angel Reese posted 30 points on 11-of-14 shooting and 10 rebounds in 25 minutes, recording her WNBA-record 30th double-double of the season. Rhyne Howard added 10 points and set a single-season league record with her 129th three-pointer.
Lloyd Performs at Dream, Sun Game
Allisha Gray also scored 10 and broke her own franchise mark for points in a season. Atlanta outscored Connecticut 31-11 in the third quarter and 27-13 in the fourth. Olivia Nelson-Ododa led the Sun with 13 points, all in the first half.
Lloyd, the Atlanta-area R&B artist known for early-2000s hits, has performed at Dream home games before, including a June 2025 halftime appearance against the Indiana Fever at the same venue. The team has used local music talent to energize the building during timeouts and intermission, pairing the on-court product with live entertainment that fits the crowd.
Typical Lloyd sets at these events lean on familiar material—“Get It Shawty,” “You,” “Southside,” and similar tracks—that get fans on their feet without requiring a full concert production. The compact arena setting at Gateway Center suits that format: short, high-energy, and timed around the game clock rather than a standalone show.
The result on the floor was never in doubt after the first half. Atlanta improved to 27-14 and stayed in strong playoff position. Connecticut fell to 10-31. The combination of a lopsided result and a recognizable hometown performer gave the night a party atmosphere even as the Sun were held to 59 points.
Dream home games have mixed basketball with local flavor throughout the season. Pairing a record-setting individual performance from Reese with a live R&B set is consistent with how the organization has tried to fill the building and keep energy high during a long regular-season stretch.
Halftime performances aside, downtown and Midtown are excellent places to find all the cool things happening in Atlanta this weekend. That’s where some of the best restaurants are as well as where the visitors, namely tourists, are. Downtown Atlanta or Midtown Atlanta often has something cool going on! Check out these events in Atlanta today and this week and this weekend:
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A magnitude 2.1 earthquake struck the south metro Atlanta area on Thursday morning, September 17, 2026, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The event occurred at 10:05 a.m. local time and was centered in Clayton County near Forest Park and Riverdale, about 10 miles south of downtown Atlanta and roughly 2 kilometers (1.5 miles) south of Forest Park.
Minor 2.1 Earthquake Hits near Forest Park and Riverdale
Official reports place the epicenter close to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Local accounts put it even more precisely near the intersection of Ash Street and Patricia Drive in Forest Park. The quake was very shallow, at a depth of about 0.9 kilometers (0.6 miles).
Earthquakes of this size are typically felt only near the epicenter, if at all. They can produce a brief rumble similar to a heavy truck passing or a short vibration. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. USGS data indicated this was the only earthquake recorded in Georgia in the preceding three weeks.
Georgia sits far from major plate boundaries, so significant quakes are rare. Small events do occur along minor faults, and some recorded tremors in the metro area have later been reclassified as quarry blasts. A local meteorologist noted that this epicenter also sat near a quarry and that similar past events have turned out to be explosions rather than natural earthquakes. Official classification remained an earthquake in initial USGS listings.
Residents who felt shaking can submit reports through the USGS “Did You Feel It?” system, which helps refine maps of how widely such small events are noticed. For most of metro Atlanta, the morning tremor passed unnoticed.
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TUCKER, Ga. — An Atlanta singer is accused of slapping a woman from the stage during a concert, an incident captured on video that the woman says left her with two black eyes and that her attorney says will be the basis of a lawsuit.
Shamika Boyd says she was at Lonsdale Performing Arts Theater in Tucker to watch her daughter, DJ Jada Boyd, when Atlanta artist Sky Whatley reached down from the stage and struck her across the head. Video circulating from the show appears to show the blow, which Boyd and witnesses say could be heard over the concert music.
Music Artist Sky Whatley Slaps Woman: Why?
“When he hit me, I was devastated. He had no reason to hit me. I did nothing to him. He was in no harm, no threat,” Boyd said.
Boyd said Sky Whatley then flipped her off and said something along the lines of, “F U… this is for the real men.”
Jada Boyd said she did not know her mother had been hit until after the show and wants accountability.
The performance was part of an awards-and-concert event in Tucker. Reports also described a tense exchange near the stage before the slap, including claims that Boyd was trying to get a DJ’s attention and that words were exchanged beforehand. Those accounts have not been independently confirmed in later interviews, and Boyd has maintained she posed no threat.
Boyd’s attorney, Shannon Render, said the family intends to sue for medical bills, travel expenses, lost work and recovery costs. “It’s not appropriate for you to enter a venue and then be assaulted and then have to carry the burden of your medical expenses,” Render said.
A police report has been filed. Boyd and her attorney said they have not been able to reach Whatley.
Also, Whatley’s Instagram account seems to have been made private, his Facebook account was deactivated, and an email sent through his Linktree has not gotten a response, according to local media.
Whatley has not issued a public comment on the allegations. No arrest has been publicly confirmed.
The case remains an accusation at this stage. Video of the strike has fueled online debate about what happened immediately before the slap, but Boyd says the blow was unprovoked and that she is seeking both criminal and civil remedies.
Fortunately, there are other ways and venues to enjoy live music in Atlanta. Our Atlanta Live Music Guide lets you know every week and each fun-filled weekend who’s playing and where.
There are so many Atlanta events popping off every week it’s hard to keep up with it all. That’s why I suggest you subscribe to AtlantaFi.com to get all the freshest gatherings, Atlanta happenings, parties and more delivered to your inbox.
Things to do in Atlanta on a weekly basis can range from going golfing mid-week to checking out the latest restaurant openings. At AtlantaFi.com, we curate the city for you!
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A proposed new interstate across the heart of Georgia is back in the spotlight. If built, Interstate 14 would run from Columbus through Macon and Warner Robins to Augusta, forming the eastern end of a roughly 1,300-mile “Forts to Ports” corridor stretching from West Texas to the Savannah River.
The idea is not new. Planners first studied a “14th Amendment Highway” linking Augusta, Macon, Columbus, Montgomery, and Natchez in the mid-2000s. Momentum returned in 2021, when Sens. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Ted Cruz of Texas secured a high-priority corridor designation in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
New Georgia Interstate: What We Know
That label does not fund construction, but it lets states pursue federal planning and future grants.
In Georgia, the most likely path follows the Fall Line Freeway (State Route 540), completed as a limited-access highway in 2018. Upgrading that corridor to full interstate standards—controlled access, wider shoulders, interchanges instead of at-grade intersections—would give the state its first new interstate since the 1960s. Exact alignments are not locked in. Some descriptions have I-14 using existing roads through Columbus, then SR 96 and I-75 toward Warner Robins and Macon before turning northeast toward Augusta, terminating near I-20 and I-520.
Supporters call it a strategic and economic project. The route would tie together major military installations: Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning) near Columbus, Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Fort Eisenhower (formerly Fort Gordon) near Augusta, and the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany. Robins alone employs nearly 22,000 people and is Georgia’s largest single-site industrial complex.
Advocates also argue I-14 would give freight an east-west alternative south of Atlanta, ease pressure on I-20, and open rural counties to industry. Talbot County, between Columbus and Macon, is often cited: a 22 percent poverty rate and average commutes of about 43 minutes. More than half the roads along the broader proposed corridor are still two-lane, and many lack adequate shoulders.
Skeptics point to cost and traffic. A Georgia Department of Transportation analysis in 2024 estimated more than $5 billion to upgrade the Columbus-to-Augusta stretch and projected only about 3,000 trucks a day—far below the 11,000 to 18,000 typical on Georgia’s existing interstates. GDOT said the project would cut some congestion and delay but would not match the return of investments on I-75, I-20, I-95, or parts of I-16. The agency left the door open to a more detailed corridor study.
Reality on the ground remains modest. Only about 25 miles of signed I-14 exist today, a segment near Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood) in Texas that opened in 2017. Texas is still studying a 125-mile Central Texas section; officials there talk in terms of years of planning and decades of construction. Other states are at similar early stages. The current federal surface transportation law expires in late 2026, and industry groups say a long-term reauthorization is needed before states will commit serious money.
For now, I-14 is a designated corridor, not a funded highway. Georgia communities from Columbus to Augusta would gain a direct interstate link to Montgomery and, eventually, Texas. Whether that link is built depends on traffic studies, environmental reviews, state priorities, and Congress’s next highway bill. If it happens, it will be built in pieces over many years—much like other late-arriving interstates—rather than as one grand ribbon-cutting from the Chattahoochee to the Savannah.
Final Word
Downtown Atlanta’s development landscape has undergone significant transformation in recent years, driven by large-scale mixed-use projects, infrastructure upgrades, and a focus on revitalizing the city’s historic core. These changes reflect a broader effort to make Downtown more vibrant, walkable, and economically robust, particularly in preparation for events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
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Kandi Burruss is pushing back after her ex-husband, Todd Tucker, publicly discussed their intimate life while promoting a new project.
In a trailer for his upcoming film ’Til Divorce Do Us Part, Tucker is asked by fellow Real Housewives of Atlanta alum Peter Thomas whether he and Burruss had threesomes during their marriage. Tucker replies, “We did. I would say most of our marriage we did.”
Kandi Burruss Speaks Out on Todd
Burruss, who was married to Tucker from 2014 until their split was announced in November 2025, responded in a statement to People. She did not dwell on the claim itself. Instead, she focused on the decision to make it public.
“A man who has already hurt me to my core is furthering the damage by choosing to sensationalize our sex life to stretch his five minutes of fame,” Burruss said. “What consensually happens between a husband and wife in the privacy of their marriage is exactly that—private. His current behavior has only confirmed that I did the right thing by getting divorced. I Do, I Did, I’m Done!”
That last line is also the title of Burruss’s one-woman show, which she has used to tell her side of the marriage and its end.
The couple’s 11-year marriage was often discussed on RHOA, including their sex life. Burruss has previously acknowledged that they sometimes brought other people into the bedroom, while describing it as occasional rather than a constant feature of the marriage. Tucker’s trailer comment frames it as something that happened for “most” of their time together. The current fight is less about whether anything consensual happened and more about who gets to talk about it after the divorce.
READ: Todd Tucker speaks out on Kandi Burruss, divorce
Burruss announced the split in November 2025, saying the decision came after “deep thought and a lot of prayer” and that her focus was on protecting her peace, being a mother, and co-parenting with respect. The divorce was later finalized. Tucker has said ’Til Divorce Do Us Part is, in part, a response to Burruss’s public account of the breakup.
Her new statement draws a hard line: private marital intimacy stays private, even after the marriage ends. In her view, Tucker’s comments are not candor. They are publicity. And they have only reinforced the conclusion she already reached: the marriage is over, and she is done.
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Months after his marriage to Kandi Burruss was officially dissolved, Todd Tucker is no longer pretending the split has been easy.
Appearing on V103’s Big Tigger Morning Show, the producer and former Real Housewives of Atlanta fixture dropped the polished public-facing version of post-divorce life and admitted he is still struggling. “I’m f*ed up,” he said. “You mask it with hanging out, drinking, and all of the st, you know. But I’m working through it.”
Todd Tucker Speaks Out on Divorce From Kandi Burruss
He added that the outward image does not match the private reality. “It looks good,” Tucker said of how the split can appear from the outside. “You gotta save face.” Then he spelled out what changed: “I went from being at home with my family every day. The dog, the kids, the nanny, the wife, and now I’m by myself, pretty much.”
“I don’t think people understand divorce,” he continued. “I lost my person. I still lost my person, and I lost my family as I knew it.” Seeing Ace and Blaze on an every-other-week schedule after years of a full house, he said, has been one of the hardest adjustments.
Tucker and Burruss met while filming Season 4 of RHOA in 2011, got engaged in 2013, and married in April 2014. They share son Ace and daughter Blaze. Burruss is also mom to Riley from a previous relationship; Tucker has daughter Kaela from a previous relationship. Burruss filed for divorce in November 2025 after 11 years of marriage, saying a specific incident that July convinced her she could not continue. The case included a contested custody fight before the pair reached a settlement in March 2026. They now share joint legal and physical custody. Burruss paid Tucker a lump-sum property equalization of roughly $426,000; neither side receives ongoing child or spousal support.
Asked why the marriage ended, Tucker declined to assign a single cause. “I think there was a lot that happened. We could say, ‘Well, this is why,’ but it was a journey,” he said. “It’s not really about, you know, her part of it is her business.” He described his upcoming project ’Til Divorce Do Us Part as a way to process the emotions rather than a tell-all.
The most striking moment in the interview involved Riley. Tucker said they spoke at a party Kaela hosted at his New Jersey home. Riley told him, “Go get my mom back.” “It was one of those moments where you can’t even get the words out,” he recalled.
Riley has separately described the year as one of adaptation. “A divorce happens between two people, but it affects more than just those two people,” she has said. “It’s tough at times, it’s easy at times, it’s confusing. I’m still learning.” She has also said Tucker still supports her, even as the family dynamic is “not the same.”
Burruss has been consistent that reconciliation is not on the table. Promoting her one-woman show I Do. I Did. I’m Done., she previously shut down jokes that she might not be finished and said she is keeping the Burruss-Tucker hyphenate for the children. The former couple have still shown up together for the kids, including a Bahamas vacation months after the divorce was finalized.
FkA5yLARGE
Tucker’s comments land in a familiar place for public divorces: two people who once built a life together, now navigating separate houses, shared children, and very different public narratives about what the marriage was and why it ended. He is not claiming the story is simple. He is saying the loss is real, the nights are quieter than they used to be, and the work of getting through it is still underway.
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NeNe Leakes has drawn a careful line around Kim Zolciak’s family crisis: she checked in, she will not pile on, and she is not interested in becoming an online referee for someone else’s parenting.
The comments landed after Zolciak’s 15-year-old son, Kroy “KJ” Biermann Jr., was granted a $200,000 bond in Fulton County Superior Court on September 11.
NeNe Leakes Says She’s Spoken With Kim Zolciak: ‘She’s Not OK’
Judge Melynee Leftridge ordered his release from Atlanta’s Metro Regional Youth Detention Center under tight conditions: live at his mother’s home, wear an electronic monitor, observe a 24-hour curfew except for medical or court appointments, attend school virtually, surrender his passport, stay off social media, and give up his cellphone except for approved school or counseling use.
He is also barred from contact with the alleged victim and from contact with anyone 16 or younger, a restriction that extends to his younger siblings.
KJ was arrested in August and later indicted on seven felony counts tied to an alleged April 23 incident at a Life Time Fitness in Alpharetta involving a minor classmate. Prosecutors have also referenced a prior juvenile matter. KJ has denied the allegations through counsel and is expected to plead not guilty. Zolciak has said the claims against her son are “reckless and deeply troubling” and that he “categorically denies” the conduct.
Read up on Kroy Biermann Jr’s bond conditions.
That is the backdrop NeNe walked into this week.
On September 11, before the bond news had fully settled, she told The Big Tigger Morning Show she had already reached out. “I recently spoke to Kim. I think it was last week,” she said. “I just hit her up, wanting to know how she’s doing, congratulating her on [her daughter] Brielle and making sure she was okay with what her son is dealing with. I know that’s a tough time and I know she’s not okay.” She also declined to upgrade the relationship. “I’m cool with Kim,” she said. “Friend? That’s a serious word to me. Associates? Yes.”
Then came the New York Fashion Week stop. TMZ caught NeNe between runway shows and asked about Kim and KJ. She confirmed she has been texting Kim. “As a mom, I’m sure she’s not okay,” she said. She also pushed back on people attacking Zolciak’s parenting, a stance later packaged by recap accounts as “everyone parents differently.” In other words: she would speak to Kim as a mother. She would not hold court on how Kim raises her children.
That distinction matters because of who is saying it. NeNe and Kim helped launch The Real Housewives of Atlanta, then spent years turning a friendship into one of Bravo’s most quoted feuds. NeNe has since described their current status as civil, not intimate. Checking in after KJ’s arrest, and again after he bonded out, is not a reunion tour. It is a narrow act of courtesy in a situation most people would rather watch from a distance.
The internet did not take the same approach. Once KJ’s bond conditions became public, especially the no-contact rule involving minors in the home, comment sections turned into a referendum on Zolciak as a mother. NeNe’s answer cut against that current. She did not claim inside knowledge of the case. She did not declare KJ innocent or guilty. She said a parent in that position is not okay, and that strangers do not get to grade the household from their phones.
There is also a practical reason her comments traveled. Reality audiences are used to Housewives using other people’s children as ammunition. NeNe, of all people, declining that invitation is the plot twist. She congratulated Kim on Brielle’s wedding plans, asked after her well-being, and left the legal fight where it belongs: in court.
KJ’s arraignment is scheduled for October 14. A request to move the case to juvenile court remains pending. Until then, he is home under supervision, Kim is absorbing the public heat that comes with a famous last name, and NeNe has made her position plain. She will text. She will not testify in the comments. And she will not pretend that “associate” suddenly means “character witness.”
For a franchise built on saying the quiet part out loud, that restraint is the story.
Keep up with Season 17:
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Tyler Perry is moving to Puerto Rico in early 2027. The announcement, comes from an exclusive interview he gave TODAY special correspondent Justin Sylvester on September 14, 2026.
In the clip, Perry confirms the relocation after being asked whether he ever plans to “chill out.” “Yes, I am officially — you’re the first to hear this — I am officially moving to Puerto Rico,” he said. “No, this is real. Yep, moving to Puerto Rico at the top of the year, and I’m pulling back a whole lot.”
The timing is personal. Perry turned 57 on September 13. He framed the decision around age, fatherhood, and a desire to step back from the relentless pace that built his entertainment empire.
Why Tyler Perry’s Moving To Puerto Rico
“Getting older,” Perry said when asked what prompted the change. “It’s time to slow down a little bit, enjoy more time with my son, and just take it all in.”
His son, Aman, is 11. Perry shares him with former partner Gelila Bekele, with whom he was in a relationship from 2009 to 2020. He has spoken previously about keeping Aman out of the spotlight so the boy can have a more normal childhood. In the interview, Perry described fatherhood as healing after his own difficult upbringing: “Having this opportunity and this moment to be a father and give him all the love that I never had has been really, really healing.”36
That theme also appears in the 2023 documentary Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story, co-directed by Bekele. In one scene, a younger Aman asks why his father works so hard. Perry answers that he wants them to have a good life, travel, and help other people.
Perry also used the interview to close the door on marriage. Reflecting on the Why Did I Get Married? films (the third installment, Why Did I Get Married Again?, dropped on Netflix days earlier), he said that at this stage of life, “that’s not a good idea for me. So no, won’t be any marriage for me.”
Atlanta Built the Empire
Perry has been synonymous with Atlanta for years. He owns Tyler Perry Studios on a 330-acre former military base and has additional large holdings in Georgia. The city is where he went from living in his car while staging plays to becoming one of the most commercially successful Black filmmakers and studio owners in the industry. A move does not mean those operations disappear overnight; “pulling back a whole lot” suggests a reduced personal workload rather than shutting everything down.
Puerto Rico offers a different setting: Caribbean climate, U.S. territory status, and a growing film and creative-industries presence of its own.qP1i7 UfaWg
The Tax Conversation Happening in the Replies
Perry did not mention taxes. Some people on X immediately did. One reply to the original clip noted Puerto Rico’s low tax rates. The island’s Act 60 incentives have long drawn high earners and export-service businesses (including film and production work) with a 4% corporate rate on qualifying income and favorable treatment of certain investment income for bona fide residents. Rules have been tightening, and new individual-investor applications filed in 2027 face a 4% rate instead of the previous 0% exemption on certain passive income.39
Whether those incentives factor into Perry’s planning is unknown. He presented the move as a lifestyle and family decision after decades of high output.
How People Are Reacting
The news spread quickly, drawing a mix of responses. Some people welcomed a successful Black creator choosing to prioritize time with his child. Others treated the destination as the real story and speculated about taxes or Perry’s personal life.
Perry has stayed productive even while talking about slowing down. He continues to produce a high volume of films and series, many for Netflix and other streamers, and he remains active in philanthropy. The Puerto Rico chapter, if it proceeds as announced, will test how much of that machine can run with its founder spending more time off the mainland and with his son.
The move is slated for the start of 2027. Until then, the Atlanta studios and the projects already in motion are expected to keep rolling.
Perry has earned some rest for his hard work.
Are you interested in becoming an actorin Atlanta? You’re in the right place!
With more than 900 movie and TV projects just in the last few years, the film industry has generated more than $9 billion for the state of Georgia.
There are so many movies filmed in Atlanta these days that it’s hard to keep up with it all. That’s why I suggest you subscribe to AtlantaFi.com to get all the freshest movie casting calls, celeb sightings and Atlanta happenings delivered to your inbox.
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