Paul Reubens Paul Reubens Paul Reubens (; né Rubenfeld; born August 27, 1952) is an American actor, writer, film producer, game show host, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s and started his career as an improvisational comedian and stage actor. In 1982, Reubens put up a show about a character he had been developing for years. The show was called "The Pee-wee Herman Show" and it ran for five sold-out months with HBO producing a successful special about it. Pee-wee became an instant cult figure and for the
Paul Reubens Christmas Special. "Playhouse" garnered 15 Emmy Awards, all of them in the Creative Arts Emmy Award category. Reubens had not always thought of his character as one for children, but sometime during the mid-1980s, he started forming Pee-wee into the best role model he possibly could, making of his show a morally positive show that cared about issues like racial diversity. Reubens was also careful on what should be associated to Pee-wee. Being a heavy smoker, he went to great lengths never to be photographed with a cigarette in his mouth, even refusing to endorse candy bars and other kinds