A year ago, Lisa Kasteler was preparing to retire from a lengthy career in publicity that included a longstanding working relationship with the actor Matthew Perry, her client of more than 30 years. But after Perry’s untimely death on Oct. 28, 2023, the publicist quickly shifted gears into an entirely new path.

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Kasteler serves as the executive director of the Matthew Perry Foundation, a nonprofit created last November to carry on the Friends actor’s mission to help those struggling with addiction. Perry, who had long been candid about his own struggles with sobriety, was planning on launching such an organization before his passing, said Kasteler. “We were able to have these really important conversations about how to go about it,” she told Observer. “The hope was we would be doing it with him, obviously.”

With an overarching goal to dismantle the stigma surrounding addiction and “help as many people as possible on their journey to recover,” the foundation is in many ways a progression of Perry’s own........

© Observer