Tyler Lepley

Tyler Lepley (born March 24, 1987)[1][2] is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Benjamin "Benny" Young on the Tyler Perry produced prime time soap opera The Have and the Have Nots; which is the first scripted television series to air on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Tyler Lepley
Lepley in 2018
Born (1987-03-24) March 24, 1987
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma materKutztown University
Occupation
Years active2009–present

Early life and education

Lepley was born and raised in Philadelphia by his mother and stepfather, who has been in his life since the age of 6.[3][2] Lepley is Italian on his mother's side and Jamaican on his biological father's side.[2][4] Lepley revealed that he was teased as a child because he was the only black kid in his school.[4] He graduated from Central Bucks High School West in Doylestown. Lepley did several sports including track, football, basketball, karate—as a young child—and boxing but focused more on football as he got older.[5][6]

Lepley played football in high school under the name Tyler Dinnis. In June 2003, he suffered an injury which nearly ended his football career and later underwent surgery. By the summer of 2004, Lepley was back on the field and was selected as the MVP at sports camp for Villanova University.[7] He attended Kutztown University on a football scholarship.[8] Lepley played football for the university until the fall of 2007 when he and another player were suspended for attacking an innocent man and breaking his jaw.[9] While Lepley was reinstated to the college, his football career was over. Lepley went on to graduate from Kutztown in 2010 with a degree in criminal justice. Lepley accepted a friend's offer to relocate to Los Angeles in 2011 and found work as a personal trainer at Iron Fitness Gym in Santa Monica.[2][8][10]

Career

About three months after he settled in Los Angeles, Lepley was discovered by a producer at a boxing gym who invited him to audition. From that meeting, he booked a lead role in an independent horror movie, Slumber Party Slaughter.[2] Lepley, reluctantly took his agent's advice to get serious about acting and enrolled in acting classes and he soon made his acting debut in an episode of The CW's 90210.[2] In 2013, he booked the role of Benny on Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots after a long casting process.[10] Lepley was quite surprised when Perry came to the audition dressed as his famous Madea character because he was shooting a movie at the time.[6] Lepley also appeared in the 2013 comedy Baggage Claim starring Paula Patton.[10]

In early 2016, Lepley booked the lead role of Jaxon in the made-for-television film, produced by Swirl Films Ringside, directed by Russ Parr. The film premiered in September 2016 TV One. His costars included Everybody Hates Chris actor Tequan Richmond and R&B singer Sevyn Streeter.[8][5] In 2019, Lepley was cast a series regular in the Starz drama, P-Valley.[11] In 2020, he was cast in the Untitled Tracy Oliver Amazon comedy series.[12]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
2012 Slumber Party Slaughter Tyrese
2012 Dirty People Detective Dave Short film
2012 90210 Gym Guy Episode: "It's All Fun and Games"
2013 Sake-Bomb Bar patron
2013–present The Haves and the Have Nots Benny Young Series regular
2013 Baggage Claim Curtis
2013 Hollywood Chaos Victor Reins
2016 Ringside Jaxon Holley Television film
2019 Three's Complicated Sonny Television film
Tales Micah Episode: "Ex-Factor"
2020 P-Valley Diamond Series regular

References
  1. Lepley, Tyler [@TyLepley] (24 March 2015). "Tyler Lepley on Twitter: "How cool! My 28th birthday.. Hands down the best ever! Overwhelmed w the love of my family. Words… t.co/UI5vdZZ6rB"" (Tweet). Retrieved January 12, 2017 – via Twitter.
  2. Armstrong, Jenice (June 17, 2013). "Celebrating Success: An actor almost by accident, Doylestown's Ty Lepley is determined to make it". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on January 12, 2017. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  3. "Jaclyn Betham & Ty Lepley – The DOPE MAG Interviews". Pure DOPE Magazine. July 2013. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  4. D'Amour, Zon (June 22, 2016). "Off The Field And On Set With Actor Tyler Lepley". Los Angeles Sentinel. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  5. Taylor, Jenelle (September 4, 2016). "From East To West: Tyler Lepley Rises To His First Lead Role On TV One's 'Ringside'". Vibe. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  6. "Breaking Out & Breaking Hearts". Kover Story. Krave: 6–10. October 2014.
  7. Santoliquito, Joe (October 15, 2004). "Making up for lost time C.B. West's Tyler Dinnis is on a tear". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 22, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  8. Lobo, Demi; Whaley, Kacie (March 3, 2016). "TYLER LEPLEY: FROM PERSONAL TRAINER TO UNEXPECTED TV STAR". Rolling Out. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  9. Callaway, Brian; Gamiz, Manuel (October 31, 2007). "Police: Two Kutztown football players attacked man". The Morning Call. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  10. "Focus Feature: Tyler Lepley". Hydrogen Mag. June 21, 2013. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  11. Galuppo, Mia (March 13, 2019). "Tyler Lepley Joins Starz Pole Dancer Drama 'P-Valley' as Series Regular". The Hollywood Reporter. Valence Media. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  12. Petski, Denise (February 4, 2020). "Tyler Lepley Joins Tracy Oliver's Amazon Comedy Series".
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