Pee-wee as Himself | |
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Directed by | Matt Wolf |
Music by | |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producer | Emma Tillinger Koskoff |
Cinematography | David Paul Jacobson |
Editor | Damian Rodriguez |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | HBO |
Pee-Wee as Himself is a 2025 American documentary series directed and produced by Matt Wolf. It follows the life and career of actor and comedian Paul Reubens, most known for portraying the character Pee-wee Herman.
It had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2025. [1] [2]
Pee-Wee as Himself explores the life and career of Paul Reubens.
In the documentary, Reubens came out publicly as gay in interviews taped before his death in 2023. [3]
In March 2021, it was announced Matt Wolf would direct a documentary revolving around Paul Reubens for HBO Documentary Films, with Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie set to executive produce under their Elara Pictures banner, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff to produce. [4] In November 2024, it was announced to be titled Pee-Wee as Himself. [5]
Paul Reubens was an American actor and comedian, widely known for creating and portraying the character Pee-wee Herman.
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American comedy children's television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's popular stage show and the TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more adult humor.
Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a 1985 American adventure comedy film directed by Tim Burton in his feature-film directing debut. The film stars Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman, along with E.G. Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger and Judd Omen. The screenplay, written by Reubens with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol, tells the story of Pee-wee's search for his stolen bicycle and has been compared to the 1948 Italian film Bicycle Thieves.
Pee-wee Herman is a comedy character created and portrayed by the American comedian Paul Reubens. He starred in films and television series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an HBO special in 1981. As the stage performance gained further popularity, Reubens took the character to motion picture with Pee-wee's Big Adventure in 1985, toning down the adult innuendo for the appeal of children. This paved the way for Pee-wee's Playhouse, an Emmy Award-winning children's series that ran on CBS from 1986 to 1991. Another film, Big Top Pee-wee, was released in 1988.
The Pee-wee Herman Show is a stage show developed by Paul Reubens in 1980. The show is the first significant appearance of Reubens' fictional comic character, Pee-wee Herman. The show debuted as a midnight show in February 1981 at the Groundlings theater, and was later moved to the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California in September that same year, where the HBO cable network taped one of the shows and aired it as a special. The special was later released on DVD by Image Entertainment in 2006. The nightclub show had more adult humor than the later children's television series.
Adam Bhala Lough is an American film director, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker from Fairfax, Virginia. Known for his dramas about subcultures and popular youth cultures, several of Lough's films have been selected as part of the Sundance Film Festival, and is the only filmmaker with a feature film and a documentary in the festival, as well as a screenplay selected for the annual Sundance Screenwriter's Lab.
Joshua Safdie and Benjamin Safdie are independent American filmmakers and actors based in New York City, who frequently collaborate on their films. They are best known for writing and directing the crime thriller films Good Time (2017), starring Robert Pattinson, and Uncut Gems (2019), starring Adam Sandler.
Cable News Network Films is a motion picture division of CNN under Warner Bros. Pictures, originally launched in 2012. Its first film, Girl Rising premiered in spring 2013 in the United States.
The Case Against 8 is an American documentary film, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. Directed and produced by Ben Cotner and Ryan White, the film documents the legal battle to overturn California's Proposition 8, focusing in particular on behind-the-scenes footage of David Boies and Theodore Olson during the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case.
Matt Wolf is an American filmmaker, documentarian, and producer. His notable films include Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, Teenage, Bayard & Me,Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, and Spaceship Earth. In 2010, he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. His subjects include youth culture, artists, archives, music, and queer history.
Pee-wee's Big Holiday is a 2016 American adventure comedy film directed by John Lee and written by Paul Reubens and Paul Rust. The film stars Reubens as Pee-wee Herman and Joe Manganiello as himself. It is the second standalone sequel to Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), following Big Top Pee-wee (1988), and Reubens' final feature film role before his death in 2023.
Karim Amer is an Egyptian-American film producer and director. He worked on The Square (2013) and The Great Hack (2019); the former was the first Egyptian film to earn an Academy Award nomination and went on to win three Emmy Awards, while the latter got nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA Award. In 2020, he produced and directed The Vow, an HBO documentary series about the self-improvement group, NXIVM. In 2022, he produced and directed Flight/Risk for Amazon Studios, revolving around whistleblowers at Boeing.
Elara Pictures is an American independent film production and television production company founded by Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, Ronald Bronstein and Sebastian Bear-McClard.
DreamCrew Entertainment is a multi-disciplinary media company co-founded by Drake and Adel "Future" Nur in 2017, based in the US and works globally. The company functions as both a management company and entertainment group, housing a production company and content studio, known for the HBO television series Euphoria and the Netflix series Top Boy.
The Curse is an American satirical black comedy thriller television series created and written by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, and starring Emma Stone, Fielder, and Safdie. It was filmed from June to October 2022 and premiered on streaming and on-demand for all Showtime and Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers on November 10, 2023, before making its on-air debut on Showtime on November 12. Its first three episodes premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 12, 2023. The first season concluded on January 12, 2024, receiving critical acclaim.
Benjamin Safdie is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and film editor best known for working with his older brother Josh as a filmmaker. His directorial works include Heaven Knows What (2014), Good Time (2017), and Uncut Gems (2019). Transitioning towards acting, Safdie was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his role in Good Time and has since taken on roles in films such as Licorice Pizza (2021), Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. and Oppenheimer. He co-created, co-wrote and starred in the television show The Curse (2023).
Fruit Tree is an American film and television production company, founded by Emma Stone and Dave McCary in 2020. The company's productions include When You Finish Saving the World (2022), The Curse (2023), and A Real Pain (2024).
Hal & Harper is an upcoming television series from Cooper Raiff, starring Raiff, Mark Ruffalo and Lili Reinhart.
Max Walker-Silverman is an American filmmaker. He wrote, directed and produced A Love Song (2022) and Rebuilding (2025).