Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil have been the forces behind some of the best black television this generation has seen, to include Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane and The Game. Now, according to a new lawsuit, Salim will have to put the directing hat down and tend to some serious legal allegations.
Akil is being charged with domestic violence and breach of contract by Amber Dixon Brenner, a young woman who claims to have been in a 10 year relationship with the director. Brenner filed the suit last week in California and alleges that Akil was sexually and physically abusive towards her.
Brenner’s accusations of abuse don’t come far and few in between, as she alleges multiple instances of physical violence in the form of slapping, strangling and forced oral sex. Brenner shared one instance during a birthday party in Los Angeles’s Roosevelt Hotel, Akil asked her to follow him into the bathroom, where he slapped her making her stumble backwards and then forcing her to perform oral sex before urinating in her mouth.
In another complaint, she claims that on a patio outside his home on Marthas Vineyard, “he proceeded to stick three fingers up her anus and started lecturing her.”
For the breach of contract portion, Brenner claims Akil used portions of a script she wrote in 2015 called “Luv & Perversity in the East Village”. The series never made it on television but she alleges that some of her work appeared in the #OWN series “Love Is_”, which Akil created and is a semi-autobiographical story of how the Akil’s met and fell in love.
Brenner is suing for compensatory damages, emotional distress, attorney fees and punitive damages but the amount she is asking for is not disclosed in her complaint.
