Madea
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50 free Madea trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Madea is one of the most recognisable characters in American comedy: a tall, grey-wigged, no-nonsense grandmother with a purse, a temper and a long criminal record, played by the man who created her, Tyler Perry. She began on the touring stage in the late 1990s and went on to anchor more than a dozen films, a cartoon, a best-selling book and a string of television cameos. This quiz covers the whole run. Expect questions on where the character came from and what her name means, the relatives who share her house, the plots of the films from her first big-screen outing to her streaming-era comeback, and the surprising guest stars who turn up along the way, from daytime television hosts to sports legends. It is written for casual fans who have laughed through a Madea movie or two as much as for devotees who know the stage plays by heart. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up a story or two even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 2005 film, adapted from a Tyler Perry stage play, gave Madea her big-screen debut?
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
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.
Q 02Southerners know the name Madea as a shortened, affectionate form of which two-word phrase?
Mother dear
Mother dear, run together in Southern speech, gives Madea her name. Tyler Perry based the character on his own mother and an aunt.
Q 03In her first film, Madea takes which tool to the living room of her granddaughter's cheating husband?
A chainsaw
A chainsaw lets Madea wreck the mansion's living room, a rampage that puts her in front of a judge as a repeat offender.
Q 04Which Modern Family star plays T.T., Madea's serial-killer cellmate, in Madea Goes to Jail?
Sofía Vergara
Sofía Vergara had already worked with Tyler Perry a year earlier, playing the brick-throwing best friend in Meet the Browns.
Q 05Which real TV personality is Madea's anger management counselor in Madea Goes to Jail?
Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil gets nowhere with her: the sessions go badly, and Madea is soon in trouble again over a stolen parking space.
Q 06In Madea's Family Reunion, what does Lisa throw in her fiancé's face, as Madea taught her?
A pot of hot grits
A pot of hot grits scalds Carlos, and Lisa follows up with a cast-iron frying pan while Madea listens outside and laughs.
Q 07Which former heavyweight champion plays Roy, the widow's secret lover, in A Madea Family Funeral?
Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson turns up at the very end, when the widow Vianne cheerfully leaves for Las Vegas with his character.
Q 08Playing Madea in Madea's Witness Protection earned Tyler Perry a Razzie nomination in which category?
Worst Actress
Worst Actress was one of several Razzie nominations for the film, which also put Perry and his drag costume up for Worst Screen Couple.
Q 09Which comedy veteran plays George Needleman, the executive who hides from the mob at Madea's house?
Eugene Levy
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.
Q 10Which talk show host reveals on air that Mr. Brown is not the father of Madea's daughter Cora?
Maury Povich
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.
Q 11What is the real first name of Madea Simmons, the grandmother Tyler Perry has played since 1999?
Mabel
Mabel Earlene Simmons is the character's full name, and the nickname is sometimes shortened even further, to Ma.
Q 12Joe Simmons, the wisecracking old man also played by Tyler Perry, is what relation to Madea?
Her brother
Her brother Joe is also the father of Brian, the level-headed nephew, which gives Perry three members of one family to play.
Q 13Which gospel singer plays Cora, Madea's daughter, opposite her real-life husband as Mr. Brown?
Tamela Mann
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.
Q 21In which city did Madea make her stage debut when I Can Do Bad All by Myself opened in 1999?
Chicago
Chicago hosted the opening, but that staging was never recorded; the version sold on DVD was filmed in Washington, D.C., in 2002.
Q 22Tyler Perry, the man who plays Madea, legally changed his first name at 16 from what?
Emmitt
Emmitt was the name he shared with the abusive man who raised him, and Perry changed it to put distance between them.
Q 23Which cousin of Madea steals candy back from trick-or-treaters in Boo! A Madea Halloween?
Aunt Bam
Aunt Bam's actress had turned up years earlier in Madea's Family Reunion as a different relative, Aunt Sarah.
Q 14A Madea Homecoming brought Madea out of retirement in 2022 on which streaming service?
Netflix
Netflix announced her return jointly with Tyler Perry, who had planned to retire the character after a farewell film and stage tour.
Q 15Tyler Perry, the creator of Madea, was born in which city before moving to Atlanta around 1990?
New Orleans
New Orleans gave Perry a childhood he has called a living hell, with weekly church services as his one refuge.
Q 16Which actress plays Nikki, the foster child a judge makes Madea take in, in Madea's Family Reunion?
Keke Palmer
Keke Palmer's Nikki arrives disrespectful after a string of uncaring foster homes, and Madea pushes her to outwork everyone who wronged her.
Q 17Which celebrated poet and memoirist plays Aunt May, a cousin of Madea, in Madea's Family Reunion?
Maya Angelou
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.
Q 18Why does Madea drive her car straight through a fast-food restaurant in Madea's Big Happy Family?
Breakfast was no longer served
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.
Q 19In A Madea Homecoming, sitcom matriarch Agnes Brown of Mrs. Brown's Boys flies in from which country?
Ireland
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.
Q 20Which actress plays April, the hard-drinking singer in the 2009 Madea film I Can Do Bad All by Myself?
Taraji P. Henson
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.
Q 24Which future Oscar winner plays Ellen, a former addict turned minister, in Madea Goes to Jail?
Viola Davis
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.
Q 25In Madea Goes to Jail, Madea takes a forklift to a car that stole her parking spot at which store?
Kmart
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.
Q 26At the start of Madea Goes to Jail, Madea walks free because the arresting officers forgot to do what?
Read her Miranda rights
The officers never read her Miranda rights, so the judge, unable to lock her up, sends her to anger management instead.
Q 27Which Cosby Show cast member plays Candy, the inmate Madea protects, in Madea Goes to Jail?
Keshia Knight Pulliam
Keshia Knight Pulliam, once little Rudy Huxtable, plays a woman whose conviction is overturned with Madea's, making them two of the Georgia Seven.
Q 28Madea's Destination Wedding flies Madea and her family to a resort ceremony in which island nation?
The Bahamas
The Bahamas is the setting, though Madea, with her long criminal record, first has to get through the passport office.
Q 29Which stand-up comedian plays Buddy, the father-in-law visiting for the holidays, in A Madea Christmas?
Larry the Cable Guy
Larry the Cable Guy's Buddy is taken for a Klansman by another guest after he is spotted with a bedsheet over his head.
Q 30Which rapper plays Byron, the grandnephew on probation, in Madea's Big Happy Family?
Bow Wow
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.