Matt Rife: Unwrapped – A Christmas Crowd Work Special arrives just in time for the holidays. In the special, he explores gifts, traditions, and who’s made it on the naughty or nice list this year.
- The special was taped in the Christmas capital of the world…. Phoenix AZ.
- This is the third comedy special at Netflix for the comedian. Natural Selection premiered in 2023 and Lucid – A Crowd Work Special premiered in 2024.
- Director: Erik Griffin
- Executive Producers: Matt Rife, Christina Shams
- Production Company: Rife’s Carpe Noctem, Avesta Entertainment, and Above Average
- Release Date: December 2, 2025
MATT RIFE BIO:
Comedian/Actor/Producer/Writer/and NY Times Best Selling Author Matt Rife has cemented himself as one of the biggest stand ups in the world through his chart-topping Netflix specials and his remarkable engagement on social media where he has amassed over 42.6 million followers, and more than 3 billion views globally.
Last December, Rife released his first book, Your Mom’s Gonna Love Me, a memoir from Simon & Schuster which instantly became a NY Times bestseller. In his book, Rife reveals (without apology, of course) what led him to becoming comedy’s biggest lightning rod before he reached thirty, in a story full of bold and hysterical takes on everything from rap battles with ex-cons to Matt’s struggles with depression and his many brushes with failure before finally hitting it big.
Rife is currently selling-out arenas around the globe on his biggest tour to-date, Matt Rife: Stay Golden Tour, where he recently sold out two shows at the famed Madison Square Garden in NYC and became the youngest comedian to do so. Rife has also set sales record for Columbus’ Nationwide Arena and various arenas across North America including Seattle. Manchester, Anaheim and more.
On his previous ProbleMATTic World Tour, Rife sold out 4 shows at The Dolby Theater in Hollywood, where the Academy Awards are held. In December 2023, Rife set a record at the Mohegan Sun Arena with five nights of consecutive sold out performances and he became the youngest stand-up comedian to sell out the Hollywood Bowl with over 17,000 tickets sold. This tour sold over 600,000 tickets in under 48 hours, becoming one of the largest comedy tours in over 20 years. He joined Taylor Swift as the only other live act to break Ticketmaster’s website due to demand.
After the success of his tour, Rife signed on for a second world tour with Live Nation & a feature film, Rolling Loud, an R-rated comedy co-starring Owen Wilson and co-produced by Live Nation Productions and American High.
As a result of his overall success, Rife earned placement on the Forbes list for Forbes 30 under 30 in 2023 and top creators lists in 2024 and 2025.
Originally from a small town near Columbus, Ohio, Matt started performing at the age of fifteen then moved out to Los Angeles two years later where he began his career in Hollywood.
In 2021, Rife self-produced and distributed through YouTube his first one-hour comedy special, Only Fans. In April 2023, the comedian bet on himself again and self-released his second stand-up special, Matthew Steven Rife on YouTube. The special was taped in Austin, TX and is dedicated to his biggest role model, his grandfather Steven who had recently passed. Only a couple months later, Rife decided to release a crowd work special, Walking Red Flag on YouTube, all of which have amassed over 48 Million views combined.
On November 15th, 2023, the comedian released his highly anticipated third stand-up special, Matt Rife: Natural Selection on Netflix, which garnered outstanding numbers including 10.3 million views in its first two weeks and earned a Top 10 ranking in 42 countries including #1 in US, Canada, and South Africa. Natural Selection was the most viewed special on Netflix for the second half of 2023. From the overwhelming success of his first Netflix special, Rife inked a two-special deal along with a development deal for a series that he will write and star in. The deal with Rife included Netflix’s first ever crowd work special, Lucid, which debuted on August 13th, 2024 and made the global top 10 list for two weeks, hitting the Top 10 in 37 countries.
In addition to stand-up, he made his television debut on MTV’s Wild ‘N Out as the youngest cast member in history for four seasons before moving on to other MTV properties, such as hosting the reboot of TRL and appearing on The Challenge. Other credits include Fresh Off The Boat, NBC’s comedy competition show Bring The Funny, Netflix’s That 90’s Show, and can be seen in the final season of Netflix’s comedy series Mo, opposite Mo Amer.
Most recently, it was announced that Rife is set to co-star Julia Garner in Netflix’s new series, The Altruists, based on the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
He will also star in The Escort, a comedy film from Wedding Crashers’ Director David Dobkin. It was also recently announced that Rife will be starring, co-writing and producing The Chasm, a feature mockumentary comedy with Skydance Sports which follows an overconfident climber who chooses to proceed solo on a historic and potentially fatal rock climb.