Tiger Tyson

Having reached celebrity status, Tyson had his portrait made by French artists Pierre et Gilles while he was in Paris directing, and acting in Tiger’s Eiffel Tower: Paris is Mine (2006),a “two-part thug porn spectacular.” They portrayed him in a tiger-striped kitchen getting relief from the apparent heat in front of an open refrigerator filled with raw meat; the portrait sold for $65,000 in 2009 (equivalent to $77,462 in 2019).

His life story was portrayed in James Earl Hardy’s 2010 play “Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star,” starring Johnathan Cedano, telling Tyson's “rags-to-riches” life using source material from writing sessions between Tyson and Hardy. In Hardy's work including this one, his first play, he attempts to “unpack the complicated intersections of race, sexuality, gender and class that shape the lives of “same gender loving” men of color.” Tyson approached Hardy seeking help writing his memoir, once they started, Hardy realized the material would make a great one-person play. Hardy developed a script in late 2009. It premiered in April 2010 to a sold-out crowd at the New York Downtown Urban Theater Festival, where it won the "Best Dramatic Short" award. In August it was reprised for two more sold-out shows at Whyte Hall on Fire Island, then two runs; at the Roy Arias Theater in New York in March 2011, and the Lace Lounge & Nightclub in Washington D.C. in May 2011.

In an April 2012 Hispanic Black Gay Coalition event, “The Raw Realty: Pornography & Black and Latino Gay Representation,” Tyson stressed the need for everyone, both producers and end users, to practice safe sex. The panel discussion was to “explore how pornography and the gay porn industry impacts Black and Latino identity, behavior and representation.” Tyson challenged negative stereotypes about men who act in gay porn, pointing out that some were raising families.

Tyson openly promotes safe sex education, AIDS research and gay rights. In 2007, he endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. He supports the legalization of marijuana.

In 2003, along with Jalin Fuentes, Tyson co-founded Pitbull Productions where Tyson has his own Tiger Tyson Entertainment label; Fuentes coined thug porn or thugporn to represent their niche in the gay porn market, and the product they were to create. Fuentes wanted to avoid the “Hollywood” glamour approach to gay sex in favor of an “urban, gritty, raw and real feel.” He coined ‘thugporn' to capture “this type of urban homeboy sex” with their company. With Tyson's company change he assumed a more sexually aggressive public persona. Tyson states, “I discovered we had the same vision about the adult business, by using only authentic thugs, paying the performers well, and practicing safe sex.” Tyson was a Pitbull Productions headlining star for years. He has also directed many of their films. One estimate had ‘thug porn’ growing to as much as a fifth of the gay porn market. Over its first six or seven years Pitbull Productions became a multimillion-dollar studio releasing over fifty films. Tyson is also his own brand; in addition to his movies and the Tiger Tyson Replicock dildo which premiered in 2008, he has his own exercise video, branded lip gloss, and “ocean-scented” car fresheners. He was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame in February 2008.

Tyson made four films with La Mancha, then joined its main competition in the gay porn “ethnic market,” Latino Fan Club (LFC) from 1998–2000. Brian Brennan founded LFC in 1985, and as of 2009 was still the leader in the thug porn niche. Brennan said, “Tiger Tyson is probably the most popular Latin porn performer ever, ... [he] has an incredible star presence and dynamic personality. He’s got all the ingredients of a major talent: great looks, huge uncut dick, and sexual energy that won’t quit.” Tyson though grew frustrated that his persona was selling videos that he had little control in developing the narrative, or getting compensated for boosting sales. He also felt the production values should be much better, and decided to do a few years break from acting while he worked to start his own company.

Tyson was introduced in Cruz's Sweatin' Black (1997). Cruz had his breakthrough as a director with Learning Latin (1997), his first film with his own company La Mancha Productions. Learning Latin, a “runaway best-seller,” was set on a college campus featuring black and Latino men, showcasing the “gay and bisexual Blatino sex-party scene” with an urban hip hop soundtrack. Cruz discovered Tyson and featured him in the second La Mancha release, Tiger's Brooklyn Tails (1998) building on the Blatino theme, and set in sex clubs and cruising areas. Over the ten years after Tiger's Brooklyn Tails, Tyson became the “best-known public representative of ‘thug porn’,” catering to, and representative of young gay black and Latino men. Tyson, from the start, developed his persona based on black and Latino men on the down-low—who had sex with other men, but still saw themselves as heterosexual—though he personally identified as bisexual, could not imagine being romantically involved with another man, and refused to bottom.

Tiger Tyson (born 1981/1982 (age 37–38)) is an American gay pornographic film actor, model, producer, and entrepreneur from Brooklyn, New York. He has appeared in dozens of ethnic-themed porn films known as thug porn, where he performs only as a top, even starring as a top who “conquers” other stars who are known for topping. Tyson, who is of African American and Puerto Rican descent, is renowned for his strong sex appeal. In February 2008, he was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame, and is also “an advocate for safe sex education, AIDS research and gay rights.” His draft of a memoir was turned into the play “Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star” by James Earl Hardy.