* Madea's Witness Protection centers around Madea and her brother Joe ( both played by Tyler Perry, himself ) dealing with a wealthy white family living in their home, when the nerdy patriarch, George Needleman ( Eugene Levy ) has to enter the witness protection program after being framed for a Ponzi scheme and a Mafia family is out to kill him.

He is known for creating, and performing in drag, the character Mabel " Madea " Simmons.

Mabel Simmons, commonly known as Madea, is a comedic, fictional character created and portrayed by Tyler Perry.

The character is a towering, massive, elderly woman, with a fiercely vindictive nature about her, quick to not only stand up for herself but get even as well ; in fact, when asked why she felt the need to get somebody all the time, Madea answered: " Well when you gettin ' got and somebody done got you and you go get them, when you get em ', everybody's gon ' get got.

Incorrigible in her overreactive ways, Madea is constantly landing herself in court, anger management classes, house arrest, and even prison.

Although Madea is featured as a costarring role in most of Perry's plays and films, including Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea's Family Reunion, Meet the Browns, Madea Goes to Jail, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, and most recently, Madea's Big Happy Family, she is not the protagonist, but the comic relief.

Madea's difficult background is seen in the film Madea Goes to Jail ( aka Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail, 2009 ), where it is revealed that Madea raised / supported her children by stripping, poledancing, and professional wrestling, among other things.

She is also stated to have a lifelong criminal record, beginning at age 9 with a charge of petty theft, progressing to illegal gambling at age 18, check fraud, identity theft, insurance fraud ( presumably related to her 9 deceased husbands ), assault and attempted murder, vehicle theft, smashing into other vehicles on roads ( as she did to the Cadillac CTS in Madea Goes to Jail ), and forklifting vehicles out of parking spaces ( such as what she had done to the Pontiac Solstice in Madea Goes to Jail ).

The film also revealed that Madea has not had a driver's license for 38 years, although a suspended Georgia driver's license issued to " Simmons, Madea " is clearly shown onscreen.

Cora thought that Johnny was her daddy until Class Reunion, in which Madea is reminded that Cora was the product of a one-night-stand with Leroy Brown during their prom in 1953, making her 62 years old in her first appearance, as well as Class Reunion when her parents attend their 50th class reunion.

His oldest daughter Helen is in her mid-to-late 30s during Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which makes him in his 50s, whereas Cora is only 50, being born in 1953 when Madea was 18.

This shows a natural propensity to disregard timelines humorously, because Madea herself is only in her mid-70s.

In " Madea Goes to Jail " there is no apparent relation between Leroy Brown and Cora other than friends.

In fact, there is no mention of any of this in several of the films, chiefly " Meet the Browns " and " Madea Goes to Jail " ( 2009 ).

In spite of her less-than-glowing reputation with her marriages and the law, Madea helps people realize how badly they are treated by their partners and will instruct them about the mistakes they have made in their life choices and leads them toward the path of forgiveness and improvement.

This made her angry, so she called the police on Madea, placing her in a car chase.

Madea has made occasional appearances on the TBS television series Tyler Perry's House of Payne.

Lee equated the Madea movies with the old-time minstrel shows which lampooned black people as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious and happy-go-lucky, and further stated that if a white director made a movie depicting black people in this manner he would rightly be ostracized.

Mr. Brown comes back over to eat at Madea ’ s house and brings a dish to share and everyone has a little fun before supper.

He has created many feature films, starting with Diary of a Mad Black Woman, in 2005, featuring Madea.

* In the successful play Madea Goes to Jail by Tyler Perry, Madea refers to the West End twice ; first she says she lives in the West End, then says to the " country pimp " to try to cross Lee street or come to the 4200 block of Avon Avenue.

In Madea Goes to Jail, Madea helps out Sonny by letting him stay at her home rent-free.

Madea seems to have adopted Nikki permanently as she appeared in the very first episode of TBS television series Tyler Perry's House of Payne still being taken care of by Madea.

They are forced by their aunt to help Madea with chores so they can earn her forgiveness.

Madea solves this by feeding it sleeping pills.

Curtis takes a particular disliking to Madea, who — as expected — is not intimidated by Curtis at all.

Perry has been accused of minstrelsy and playing into black stereotypes with the Madea character, most notably by fellow black director Spike Lee.

It was written and directed by Perry, who also played several characters, including Mabel " Madea " Simmons.

Tyler Perry's gun-toting, irreverent granny Madea, played by Perry himself, has been entertaining theater audiences with plays like Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion.

The play marks for the first official appearance of the well-known fictional character Mabel " Madea " Simmons, who is portrayed by Perry.

Madea and her colorful crazy neighbor and classmate, Mr. Brown ( whose wife from the previous play, Mattie, died from Alzheimer's and was cremated ) help married couple Corey and Trina Jeffrey ( Terrell Carter, Pamela Taylor ) come to terms with infidelity.

Madea ’ s next door neighbor, Leroy S. Brown, whom everyone calls Mr. Brown brings in Madea ’ s mail, says hi to Cora, who he hasn ’ t seen in a long time and leaves.

As they talk to doorbell rings and Mr. Brown is there, mad at Madea for giving his dog sleeping pills and they battle it out in a friendly manner.

And with that Bobby and Vianne get married, Maylee and Keisha raise Keisha ’ s daughter, Mr. Browns dog survives, and as for Madea, she ’ s still alive.

Other recordings include an adaption of Madea, Robert Louis Stevenson verses, and readings from The Bible.

In 2009, she portrayed " Candy " in the film Madea Goes To Jail.

Music from The Way I See It was featured in the following motion pictures: Madea Goes To Jail, Bride Wars, Cadillac Records, Secret Life of Bees, In Fighting ( Rogue ), and It's Complicated.

Subsequently, she appeared in films, including two Tyler Perry films, Meet the Browns ( 2008 ) and Madea Goes to Jail ( 2009 ), receiving an ALMA Award nomination for the latter.

She appeared for a short time as Sasha in the stage play version of Madea Goes to Jail in 2005 alongside Tyler Perry and Cassi Davis.

Madea was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 26, 1935.

According to Madea in " Madea's Family Christmas ", " Big Mabel " was a hooker during Madea's childhood and not religious.

Madea did not grow up with knowledge of Christianity.

Madea has an older sister named Irene Andrews, who has a son named Sonny Andrews.

It's shown that Madea didn't care much for her ; in fact, not only does Madea claim she's happy Irene died, but she also says Irene probably died on purpose to get out of repaying Madea a loan.