In the upcoming HBO docuseries 'Pee-wee as Himself', which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Paul Reubens recalls the "painful" memory of being falsely labeled a "pedophile" following his two arrests.

"Pee-wee Herman" star Paul Reubens, who died in 2023, has posthumously revealed he was gay in a new documentary unveiled at Sundance Film Festival.

“Pee-wee as Himself,” touches on the highs and lows of Reubens’ life and career prior to his fame. He gets a call to work with Steve Martin. He loses his ex to AIDS. And he fails an audition for “ Saturday Night Live ,” which crushes him but also spurs Reubens to forge his own career.

Paul Reubens, best known for his role as “Pee-wee Herman,” died in 2023 following a battle with cancer. But it seems that Reubens still has a few things to get off his chest, albeit from beyond the grave, in an upcoming documentary entitled, “Pee-wee as Himself.” PEOPLE Magazine reported the film premiered on Thursday at the Sundance Film Festival.

I want to set the record straight on a couple of things, and that’s it.” So says Paul Reubens - better remembered by many viewers as offbeat children’s entertainer Pee-Wee Herman - at the outset of “Pee-Wee as Himself,

Nearly a year and a half after Pee-wee Herman star Paul Reubens passed away from acute hypoxic respiratory failure at the age of 70, the late actor came out as gay during one of his final interviews.