Being Eddie traces Eddie Murphy’s journey from SNL breakthrough to Hollywood legend, using candid interviews to reveal the life of a once-in-a-generation star.

There’s truly only one Eddie Murphy. As a teenager, he was already sharing the stage with Jerry Seinfeld and, fresh out of high school, became a standout on Saturday Night Live. He’s since played everything from a cop to a doctor to a donkey, thriving in every corner of Hollywood he’s entered. Few stars have stayed at the top for more than forty years without falling into the industry’s pitfalls. Murphy’s explosive charisma, relentless drive, innate talent, and thoughtful self-awareness set him apart—qualities showcased throughout Being Eddie, directed by two-time Oscar winner Angus Wall.

The documentary brings together comedy and Hollywood greats—including Dave Chappelle, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jamie Foxx, Jerry Seinfeld, Reginald Hudlin, and others—to honor the Oscar-nominated performer and his nearly fifty-year career marked by boundary-breaking work, genre-defining creations, and generations of artists he’s influenced. For the first time, Murphy opens his home and his history to the public, revisiting his remarkable body of work while offering rare insight into the inner life that has guided, challenged, and steadied him. Being Eddie presents an intimate portrait of a once-in-a-century talent whose impact on entertainment continues to resonate.

“Hey, you know what’s a trip?” says Eddie Murphy immediately after the film starts. “They have so much stuff on TV…It’s like, how could there be all of this stuff and not one thing to watch? You be flipping, just flipping and flipping and flip…I be like, ‘It’s not shit to wa—’ And it be five of my movies on. I be like, ‘There ain’t shit to watch! I don’t want to see none of this shit.’”

And with that, Being Eddie moves into an opening montage displaying Murphy’s range as an actor and clips from his stand-up comedy. Murphy jokes that his advice to young actors is to “don’t ever play a rocket ship.”

Some of his earliest films are comedy classics. We’re talking about 48 Hours, Trading Places, Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop, etc. But if there’s a film that became one of the greatest comedy movies of all time, it’s Beverly Hills Cop. The Oscar-nominated 1984 comedy spawned three sequels. A TV series had been considered but wasn’t picked up to series. However, it tested well enough for Paramount to put a fourth film into development.

If not for Richard Pryor lighting himself on fire, Trading Places could have starred Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Imagine a universe where Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd don’t star opposite each other in the John Landis–directed comedy. In Being Eddie, Landis says that he reacted by saying “Who?” when asked by Paramount executives to consider Eddie Murphy.

Reginald Hudlin directed Murphy in the romantic comedy Boomerang. It was a rom-com centered on a Black couple and didn’t have white people front and center. Critics didn’t respond to it kindly because this sort of film hadn’t ever really been made before. Despite the criticism, Boomerang became the 18th highest-grossing film of 1992. Of course, this doesn’t even begin to get into the stretch of films he made that just weren’t good.

Of all the roles that saw Eddie Murphy taken seriously, it wasn’t a comedy. It was a musical, Dreamgirls. Murphy earned a number of accolades for his performance but lost the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor to Alan Arkin’s performance in Little Miss Sunshine. Say what you will, but Being Eddie reminds audiences that it did not help Murphy that Norbit opened during awards season. Flash forward to 2019, Murphy tore it up in Dolemite Is My Name. But much like Adam Sandler in the anxiety-inducing Uncut Gems, Murphy was snubbed by the Academy in the lead-up to the Oscars.

Being Eddie doesn’t probe too much into what makes Eddie Murphy, well, Eddie Murphy. But to be fair, Murphy was one of the comedians profiled in Wild and Crazy Guys a few years ago. It’s why I was so familiar with his biography before opting to play the documentary on Netflix. He even says in the documentary that he loves himself and he never fell into any of the traps that others did. Regardless, the documentary offers fans a glimpse into his life while replaying his greatest hits, whether it be stand-up bits or clips from films.

What’s so fascinating is that the original plan for Being Eddie had been to follow the comedian around as he went back on tour to perform stand-up comedy. It was going to be Murphy putting his stand-up act together. After all, Dolemite Is My Name put him back in the Oscar race and he returned to SNL in December 2019. It was his first hosting stint since 1984 and there is no shortage of BTS moments from the show. And then, the pandemic happened, putting all the plans on pause. That may have been the best thing because Being Eddie finally allows the comedian to be himself—not a comic persona, but himself.

Being Eddie ultimately works because it lets Murphy be exactly who he is: a legend who still doesn’t take himself too seriously. The film may not dig as deep as it could, but it’s a warm, entertaining reminder of why Eddie Murphy remains one of the most influential—and flat-out funniest—performers of the past fifty years.

DIRECTOR: Angus Wall
FEATURING: Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Arsenio Hall, Brian Grazer, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Jamie Foxx, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jerry Seinfeld, John Landis, Kenan Thompson, Kevin Hart, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Ruth Carter, Tracee Ellis Ross, Tracy Morgan, Barry W. Blaustein, David Sheffield, Elvis Mitchell, John Davis, Vernon Lynch Jr.

Netflix released Being Eddie on November 12, 2025. Grade: 4/5

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