Faizon Love made the kind of courtroom entrance that gets screenshotted before the hearing even starts. The 58 year old actor, beloved for playing the Gimbel’s manager in “Elf” and Big Worm in “Friday,” was wheeled into a Hillsborough County, Florida courtroom on Friday, June 19, dressed in a red prison jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists, for his first appearance in a child support case that his ex says has ballooned to a quarter of a million dollars.
The wheelchair did most of the talking before anyone said a word. What it was actually for has not been confirmed by the court or his legal team, and that ambiguity matters, because the whole hearing turned on one question: is this man genuinely broke and broken down, or is he performing it. Faizon Love had already missed an earlier hearing in this case back in April, with his side citing a medical emergency that was never documented in the filings. By the time he reached Florida, the optics and the obligation had collided in the same room.
The money at the center of all this comes from his ex, Tiffany Lee, who says the actor owes roughly $250,000 in back child support on a court ordered rate of $2,500 per month. Her attorney told the court that Faizon Love has ignored multiple court orders and has not made those payments in years. That is the charge underneath the spectacle: two counts of contempt of court, one for the unpaid support and one for skipping the April hearing he was ordered to attend.
His arrest played out across two states. He was first picked up in Riverside County, California, where he sat in custody for 16 days before being transported to Hillsborough County on orders of contempt from Judge Mark Kiser. His attorney, Glen Lansky, confirmed the cross country transfer and said his client had been held without bond at the Orient Road Jail in Tampa. By the time the hearing convened, Faizon Love had already spent more than two weeks behind bars on a case about money he insists he does not have.
In open court, his own attorney asked him point blank whether he currently had the ability to pay $2,500 a month. The answer was short. “Right now? No.” His legal team then laid out a portrait of a man at the bottom: no permanent home, a savings account at zero, a 1999 vehicle, and a reliance on friends to cover his basic expenses. Court documents obtained by TMZ show Faizon Love claimed $0 in income for all of 2025, with his highest gross income over the past five years coming in at just $13,000. He told the judge he survives on annual “Elf” royalty checks of around $10,000.
That number is the part that makes people stop scrolling. A man with more than 90 acting credits, who shared scenes with Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and the entire “Couples Retreat” cast, reduced to a five figure royalty trickle from a Christmas movie that plays on a loop every December. His attorney leaned all the way into it, arguing that the jail time itself was the problem. “This sentence is preventing him from working and ruining his name in Hollywood. So, if he’s in jail, he can’t work.”
Tiffany Lee was not moved. Appearing by video during the proceedings, she gave the court a very different read on his finances, claiming Faizon Love had told her flatly that she “wasn’t going to get a dime,” and that he intended to stop working and cancel shows specifically so the money would never reach her. Her position was simple: this is not a man who fell on hard times, this is a man who decided his daughter’s mother would not see a check. The hearing stretched roughly two hours as both sides argued over whether the poverty was real or strategic.
The judge split the difference for now. Faizon Love was ordered released from custody on Friday, ending the 16 day stretch, but he was given until July 1 to submit a financial statement proving he truly cannot meet the support obligation. Whatever he files will have to square his $0 and $13,000 claims against a resume full of studio films, and against an ex who is telling the court the broke act is exactly that.
Lansky, who said he has taken over all outstanding matters in the case, called the outcome a win and confirmed he will be filing a supplemental petition to modify the child support order. He also walked back the homelessness framing in a later statement to PEOPLE, clarifying that his client was “only homeless for a very brief period of time” and currently lives with a friend in California. The wheelchair, the red jumpsuit, the royalty checks, the zero income year, all of it now rests on a single piece of paper due the first of the month, and a judge who has already heard both versions of who Faizon Love really is.
Women want that cash at any price to anyone. Sure Dad should help with the child. All too often the court just puts numbers on a form and the court doesn’t care if there’s money to pay. Even if the dad doesn’t have money to pay no one cares. After all we must support the women’s lifestyle. I say. GET A JOB and raise that child you had to have.