Matthew Perry’s Assistant Faces 15+ Years— Is This Justice?

By Lucy Stover, Talent Coordinator, MoreMedavoy Management, Co-Editor-in-Chief, THA

Matthew Perry in series “Friends”

A Hollywood assistant is facing 15+ years in prison for doing his job.

By now, we’ve all heard the tragic story of beloved Friends actor Matthew Perry who lost his battle with substance abuse last Fall. But did you know that his personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, is being blamed for his death?

The career assistant has been roped into a criminal investigation with a drug lord, two corrupt doctors, and a supposed underground criminal network. He's accused of administering the fatal dose of ketamine that led to Perry's overdose— at Perry’s direct request. Click here if you want a play-by-play of the events leading up to Perry’s death. 

In summary: At Perry’s command, Iwamasa injected the dose of ketamine that ultimately killed him. The assistant was also responsible for escorting Perry to his doctor’s appointments, pharmacies, and even drug deals when prescribed amounts weren’t enough. Sometimes he’d go on his behalf.

Now, yes, Iwamasa technically broke the law. He picked up illegal drugs for his boss and administered them. To an industry outsider, this is absurd and sickening. To anyone in the biz, it sort of sounds like a day in the life.

So let’s cut to what they won’t write in the trades…

Kenneth Iwamasa is not responsible for Matthew Perry’s death. 

This arrest is part of a larger Hollywood system where the vulnerable are scapegoated, allowing the elite to evade responsibility for their own actions. Blaming Iwamasa for Perry’s death is not just absurd— it’s emblematic of a corrupt system that punishes the powerless while letting the wealthy off the hook.

The true culprits are addiction and a broken healthcare system that values profit over human life.

Here’s why:

Kenneth Iwamasa is just an assistant, like you and me.

He had been Perry’s assistant since 1994 and even lived with him. So clearly he was pretty good. For 29 years, he sacrificed his identity to be known as “Matthew Perry’s Assistant.” The silent, indispensable figure behind the scenes.

An assistant’s job is simply “to assist” with everything & anything. It’s the “business of yes,” where our worth is determined by our ability to complete tasks accurately and efficiently. We make the impossible possible at the drop of a hat and never say a word about it. 

Our jobs, apartments, and health insurance (if you’re lucky enough to have benefits) depend on it. In this case, let’s remember, Iwamasa was required to live with Perry. So if he lost his job, he immediately lost housing, too. 

The act of injecting the drug was a part of his job. 

On the day of Perry’s death, he asked his assistant to give him “a big one” and he obeyed. In the workplace culture that the actor created, that was as common as asking him to set a lunch.

It was no secret that Perry was a drug addict and, at this time, falling back into addiction. I’m not arguing that Iwamasa didn’t understand the dangers of his actions. But I do think he was faced with no other choice. 

Perry put his assistant in an impossible situation: either risk his livelihood by refusing, or comply and face potential legal consequences. This is manipulation— a dynamic that mirrors the power imbalances exposed by the #MeToo movement  (but that’s a whole other conversation). The pressure that makes an assistant feel as if saying no would risk everything.

THA’s own founder, Cathy Campo, was quoted in Vanity Fair, admitting that in Iwamasa’s position, she “might have done the same thing.” Admit it or don’t, I think a lot of us would have.

His boss was very sick.

And everyone knew it. Perry literally made millions of dollars for telling the world about it in a memoir. He spent over 9 million trying to get sober. If 9 mil couldn’t stop him from doing drugs, how the hell would his assistant have the power to? 

It was incredibly sad, of course. Drug addiction is a truly heartbreaking disease, one that several people in my own life have struggled with and died from. My heart is with Perry, his family, friends, and fans. 

The doctors enabled his boss’s illness.

Evidently, Perry’s doctors knew his history and prescribed him an addictive dissociative anesthetic anyways. Yes, the micro-dosage of ketamine has been scientifically proven successful in some cases of severe depression. But not in addicts. 

This is where the whole underground drug ring theory comes in. Authorities are investigating whether doctors conspired with drug dealers to exploit Perry for financial gain. 

There are some texts & such that support this theory, but I’ll leave it to the cops. All I know is that, in terms of blame, a doctor actively giving an addict access is much more culpable than an assistant responding to orders.

Pleading “not guilty” is a privilege most assistants can’t afford.

Iwamasa pleaded guilty already. Without the protection of his boss, he knows this is a losing battle. He doesn't have the money, lawyers, and resources to defend himself anymore. His sentencing is in November.

In a way, his freedom died with Perry that day.

Meanwhile, others in the case, like Perry’s doctor Dr. Salvador Plasencia and the so-called “Ketamine Queen,” have pleaded not guilty. They have the means to defend themselves, despite overwhelming evidence against them. Plasencia has already reopened his practice.

**Note that since the trial hasn’t occurred yet, it’s not on public record if Iwamasa agreed to a plea deal. A part of me thinks that he may have originally been charged with manslaughter and that they lowered the charge in order to have someone to blame, at least partially. But just a theory… for now.

Conclusion

Okay, after all that, your morality may still tell you that what Iwamasa did was objectively wrong. He did break the law, after all. But 15 years minimum jail time?? That’s almost the rest of this man’s life. I can agree that Iwamasa has partial blame in the situation, but not nearly enough to constitute that sort of punishment. 

He wasn’t some criminal mastermind orchestrating a murder; he was a man doing his job, under extreme pressure, for a very sick & very famous boss. This can’t be justice.

This case is a chilling reminder for assistants everywhere, ask yourselves: What would you do for your job? And what wouldn’t you do?

The answers are not universal, and they can’t be. Sure, it would be great if HR could lay out some real strict guidelines, but we’d still be required to hold them accountable. To interject and say that terrifying word. “No.”

But you are far stronger than you realize. It’s uncomfortable at first, but practicing boundary setting in low-risk situations will make bigger no’s much easier. Your no’s will determine what kind of assistant, and human, you are. Don’t be afraid to protect yourself and those around you. 

We owe it to ourselves–and each other–to prevent cases like Iwamasa’s from happening again. We may have missed the chance to protect him, but we can stop the next assistant from being caught in a similar nightmare.