Life in the spotlight. Matthew Perry always had dreams of making it big in the acting world and he made it happen. At the start of his career, the performer was offered some smaller parts, but it wasn’t until his appearance on the hit sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004 that he became a household name.
Matthew was one of the six main characters of the show and viewers couldn’t get enough of his portrayal of Chandler Bing. With his stellar comedic chops and hilarious facial expressions, the star quickly captured hearts and proved to be a fan-favorite. In 2002, the NBC alum even earned an Emmy nomination for his part.
He’s continued to land other roles over the years, having since appeared on The Good Wife, Cougar Town and most recently, The Kennedys After Camelot.
”I was a guy who wanted to become famous,” Matthew told The New York Times in 2002. ”There was steam coming out of my ears, I wanted to be famous so badly. You want the attention, you want the bucks, and you want the best seat in the restaurant. I didn’t think what the repercussions would be.”
Amid his rise to fame, the former Massachusetts resident struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, something he opened up about in 2013. “I felt better than I ever felt in my entire life. I had a big problem with pills and [booze], and I couldn’t stop,” he told PEOPLE at the time.
Matthew was on Friends from age 24 to 34 and was still getting used to being under a microscope. “From an outsider’s perspective, it would seem like I had it all,” he said. “It was actually a very lonely time for me because I was suffering from alcoholism. It was going on before Friends, but it’s a progressive disease.”
In February 2020, he finally launched his own Instagram account, giving fans insight into his life off set.
So, what is he up to now? Matthew was previously engaged to literary agent Molly Hurwitz. The couple began dating in 2018 and were engaged from November 2020 until May 2021. Matthew told People on June 1, “Sometimes things just don’t work out and this is one of them. I wish Molly the best.”
Scroll down to see the photos of Matthew over the years.