For millions of television viewers, Matthew Perry will always be Chandler Bing. The quick delivery, the self-deprecating jokes and the awkward attempts to hide emotional vulnerability helped turn Friends into one of the most enduring sitcoms of its generation.
Three years after Perry's death, director Mary Robertson is asking audiences to look beyond that familiar character. Her three-part Netflix documentary, The One About Matthew Perry, premiered on October 27, 2026, one day before the third anniversary of the actor's death.
The documentary brings together interviews with Perry's family, longtime friends and professional collaborators, alongside photographs and videos from the family's private archives. His half-sister Mia Perry Bowick provides some of its most intimate recollections.
The series addresses the actor's addictions and the circumstances surrounding his death, but those subjects do not entirely define its narrative. His humor, generosity, professional disappointments and advocacy for people in recovery receive substantial attention.
The success that transformed his life
Perry joined Friends in 1994, when the sitcom premiered on NBC. Across ten seasons and 236 episodes, he became internationally famous as one of its six principal actors.
The documentary revisits that breakthrough through archival interviews and accounts from people who knew him at the time. Former NBC executive Warren Littlefield recalls the immediate impression Perry made when he was considered for the role of Chandler.
His comedic identity had roots in his own personality. Friends describe a young man who used humor to entertain others, conceal insecurity and navigate uncomfortable situations.
Those characteristics proved enormously successful on television. Chandler's nervous wit became one of the defining elements of Friends, while Perry's timing helped establish his reputation as a gifted comic performer.
Yet the international success of the sitcom did not resolve the private struggles that increasingly dominated his life.
During the production of Fools Rush In, released in 1997, Perry suffered a Jet Ski injury. He later described receiving opioid pain medication and experiencing an intense sense of euphoria. His subsequent dependence on prescription medication became part of a much longer struggle with substance use.
His career continued, but periods of rehabilitation and relapse increasingly affected his health and professional life. The documentary examines those years without treating addiction as a simple failure of willpower.
The people who knew him away from the spotlight
Mia Perry Bowick provides a particularly personal perspective on her brother's life. Her memories include the difficulty of understanding his condition while watching the media portray him as both a successful entertainer and a troubled celebrity.
The series also includes previously unreleased family photographs and home videos, allowing the story to move beyond footage of premieres, interviews and television appearances.
One contributor is Tim Harrington, who met Perry at a recovery meeting in 2001. The two became friends and roommates, and Harrington credits Perry with having helped save his life.
West Huddleston recalls Perry's involvement in efforts to improve how the justice system responds to addiction. Through advocacy and personal support, the actor sought to assist people facing problems that he understood from his own experience.
Other contributors include actor Nate Torrence, who worked with Perry on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Mr. Sunshine, and director Jonathan Lynn, who collaborated with him on The Whole Nine Yards.
These interviews present a performer who maintained important friendships, developed creative projects and continued trying to help others even as he experienced repeated difficulties with his own recovery.
The distinction is central to the documentary's approach. Perry's addiction was a major part of his life, but it was not the only part worth remembering.
A difficult search for life after Friends
Friends ended in 2004, leaving Perry with an unusual professional challenge. He was one of television's most recognizable actors, but the character responsible for that recognition could also make it difficult to establish a different screen identity.
He explored more dramatic material and returned to television in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin's backstage drama that premiered in 2006. The show lasted one season.
Perry later co-created and starred in Mr. Sunshine, another short-lived series. His sister reflects on how closely his professional setbacks and personal health problems became intertwined, while acknowledging that it is impossible to know how different outcomes might have been.
His work also extended to the stage. The End of Longing, written by Perry and performed in London in 2016, drew on themes of addiction and emotional struggle. Bowick regards the play as one of his most significant creative achievements.
In 2022, Perry published his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. The book offered a candid account of his life, his treatment experiences and the repeated challenges of maintaining sobriety.
Its publication became an important moment in the actor's efforts to describe his life in his own words. He was increasingly determined to speak publicly about addiction and to encourage others to seek support.
Why the Friends cast does not appear in new interviews
Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer did not participate in new interviews for The One About Matthew Perry.
Robertson has explained that the surviving Friends cast members declined to take part. Their absence should not be interpreted as evidence of estrangement or indifference. The five actors shared a long personal and professional history with Perry.
The documentary instead centers much of its storytelling on family members, friends outside the sitcom and people who accompanied him through different periods of his life.
The Friends years remain important. The series examines the 2021 reunion and Perry's fragile health during that period. His sister also recalls the emotional significance of Chandler and Monica's wedding, an onscreen event that carried a different meaning for relatives concerned about his future.
For viewers who grew up watching the sitcom, these recollections add a personal dimension to familiar moments without pretending that a television character and the actor portraying him were the same person.
His final years and the legacy of recovery
The third episode addresses Perry's serious medical problems and his attempts to remain sober before his death on October 28, 2023, at the age of 54.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner determined that the acute effects of ketamine were the primary cause of his death, which was classified as accidental.
The documentary also examines the consequences of the criminal investigation involving people who supplied ketamine to Perry. Among those implicated was his personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who pleaded guilty in connection with the case.
Those legal developments are part of the story, although Robertson does not structure the documentary primarily as an investigation into the actor's death.
Instead, the series devotes considerable attention to Perry's advocacy, the relationships he sustained and the difficulties of living with addiction over many years.
His determination to help other people in recovery was not merely a late addition to his public image. Friends and colleagues describe it as a recurring commitment that gave meaning to much of his work outside entertainment.
Three episodes available on Netflix
The One About Matthew Perry is a three-part documentary series directed by Mary Robertson and produced by Maxine Productions, part of Sony Pictures Television.
The first episode follows Perry's early life and rise to fame, ending with the breakthrough that changed his career. The second examines his increasingly public struggles with addiction, rehabilitation and relapse.
The final episode covers a severe medical crisis, his subsequent hopes for recovery and the circumstances preceding his death.
All three episodes became available on Netflix on October 27, 2026. The service also offers an official trailer introducing the documentary and its interview subjects.
Robertson's film gives the people closest to Perry an opportunity to describe the friend, brother and colleague they remember. It also preserves something the actor increasingly wanted his audience to understand: that his efforts to help others overcome addiction mattered deeply to him, independently of his fame as Chandler Bing.
