Matthew Perry Netflix Documentary Trailer Reveals Intimate Look at the Man Behind Chandler Bing

The first trailer for the Matthew Perry Netflix documentary has been released, offering an unusually personal look at the life of the actor millions knew as Chandler Bing.

The One About Matthew Perry will arrive on Netflix on 27 October 2026, one day before the third anniversary of Perry’s death.

The three-part documentary combines material from the Perry family’s private archive with new interviews from his sister, Mia Perry Bowick, lifelong friends and people who worked alongside him during his career. Netflix describes the production as the first in-depth documentary about the actor.

Watch the official trailer below.

Matthew Perry’s sister tells his story

One of the most significant voices in the documentary is Perry’s sister Mia Perry Bowick, who is speaking in depth about her brother for the series.

The newly released trailer moves between Perry’s enormous professional success and the addiction that affected much of his adult life.

Bowick says in the trailer that her brother spent approximately $7 million trying to become sober, illustrating just how prolonged and serious that struggle became.

The documentary does not appear to treat that battle as a sensational subplot to his fame. Instead, Perry’s addiction, recovery attempts and later advocacy for people dealing with substance use form a major part of the story his family and friends want to tell.

Private photographs and videos feature in the series

Netflix has been given access to previously unreleased photographs and videos from the Perry family archive.

That material allows The One About Matthew Perry to move beyond the version of Perry audiences saw through television appearances, red carpets and Friends.

The series traces his journey from a young actor through international fame, while friends and family describe the person they knew away from the cameras.

According to the official Netflix description, the intention is to show Perry as funny, generous and vulnerable while examining the battles that shaped his life.

More than Chandler Bing

Perry will inevitably remain closely associated with Chandler.

He played the character throughout all 236 episodes of Friends between 1994 and 2004, becoming part of one of the most recognisable television ensembles of its generation.

But the Matthew Perry Netflix documentary is deliberately trying to widen that picture.

His career also included The Whole Nine Yards, Fools Rush In, 17 Again and television series including Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Odd Couple.

Behind the career was a battle Perry increasingly chose to speak about publicly.

His experiences eventually became a major part of his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, in which he wrote openly about addiction, treatment and recovery.

His work helping others becomes part of the story

One of the themes emerging particularly strongly from the trailer is Perry’s desire to use his experiences to help other people.

His public discussion of addiction became increasingly central to his work later in life.

That included advocating for changes in how people with substance-use disorders were treated and creating Perry House, a sober-living facility operated from his former Malibu home.

Director Mary Robertson, whose previous work includes Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, says the public knew only part of Perry’s story.

Her aim with the series is to allow the people who loved him to explain who he was beyond both Chandler Bing and his struggles with addiction. Netflix: director Mary Robertson on the documentary

The series arrives three years after his death

Matthew Perry died on 28 October 2023, aged 54.

His death was determined to have resulted primarily from the acute effects of ketamine, with other medical factors contributing.

The documentary arrives almost exactly three years later, but its first trailer suggests Netflix is attempting to make the series about considerably more than the circumstances surrounding his death.

There is sadness throughout the footage, but there is also laughter.

That balance appears central to The One About Matthew Perry: a story about extraordinary success, addiction, friendship, loneliness, recovery and a man whose ability to make people laugh became inseparable from how the world remembers him.

The Matthew Perry Netflix documentary, The One About Matthew Perry, premieres globally on 27 October.