Pee-wee Herman

Pee-wee Herman
Paul Reubens in character as Pee-wee Herman at the 1988 Academy Awards
First appearance	Live performance: The Groundlings (1977) Screen: Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980)
Last appearance	Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016)
Created by	Paul Reubens Phil Hartman
Portrayed by	Paul Reubens
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Stand-up comedian, actor
Family	Herman Herman (father, deceased) Honny Herman (mother) Hermione Herman (sister)

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.

Due to negative media attention following a scandal in 1991, Reubens decided to shelve his alter ego during the 1990s, but gradually resurrected it during the following decade. It was at that time that Reubens addressed plans to write a new Pee-wee film, Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Movie. In June 2007, Reubens appeared as Pee-wee Herman at the Spike TV's Guys' Choice Awards for the first time on television since 1992.^[1] After a lengthy hiatus, a third film, Pee-wee's Big Holiday, was released by Netflix in 2016 and was the last time Reubens portrayed the character before his death in 2023.