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Louis Theroux

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Louis Theroux
Theroux in 2018
Born
Louis Sebastian Theroux

(1970-05-20) 20 May 1970 (age 54)
Singapore
Citizenship
EducationWestminster School
Alma materMagdalen College, Oxford
Occupations
  • Documentarian
  • journalist
  • broadcaster
  • author
Years active1992–present
Spouses
  • Susanna Kleeman
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1994; div. 2001)​
  • Nancy Strang
    ​
    (m. 2012)​
Children3
FatherPaul Theroux
Relatives
Websitewww.louistheroux.com

Louis Sebastian Theroux (/ˈluːi θəˈruː/;[1] born 20 May 1970) is a British-American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received three British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award.

After graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford, Theroux moved to the United States and worked as a journalist for Metro Silicon Valley and Spy. He moved into television as the presenter of offbeat segments on Michael Moore's TV Nation series.

Theroux is known for his numerous documentaries with the BBC, beginning with Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends (1998–2000), followed by When Louis Met... (2000–2002) and 50 BBC Two specials (2003–present). His work includes studies of unusual and taboo subcultures, crime and the justice system, and celebrities. The majority of his documentaries are set in the United States, but he has also studied cultures in South Africa, Israel, Nigeria, and the UK. The New Yorker described Theroux's work as "a piercingly humane, slyly funny guide through the funkier passages of American culture".[2]

Early life

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Louis Sebastian Theroux was born in Singapore on 20 May 1970, the son of English mother Anne (née Castle)[3] and American father Paul Theroux, a noted travel writer and novelist.[4][5] His paternal grandmother, Anne Dittami, was an Italian-American grammar school teacher, while his paternal grandfather, Albert Eugène Theroux, was a French-Canadian salesman[6][7] for the American Leather Oak company.[8] Theroux holds dual British and American citizenship.[9] He is the nephew of novelist Alexander Theroux and writer Peter Theroux. His older brother, Marcel, is a writer and television presenter.[10] His cousin, Justin, is an actor and screenwriter.[11]

Theroux moved with his family to England when he was one year old, and was raised in the Catford area of south London.[12][13] He went from primary school to Tower House School in East Sheen in 1979 or 1980 and then to Westminster School, a public school within the precincts of Westminster Abbey. There, he befriended comedians Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish,[14] and future Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, with whom he travelled to America.[15] He also performed in a number of school theatre productions including Bugsy Malone as Looney Bergonzi, Ritual for Dolls as the Army Officer, and The Splendour Falls as the Minstrel.[16] He read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford (1988–1991), graduating with first-class honours.[17]

Career

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Early career

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Theroux's first employment as a journalist was in the United States with Metro Silicon Valley,[18][19] an alternative free weekly newspaper in San Jose, California.[20] In 1992, he was hired as a writer for Spy. He also worked as a correspondent on Michael Moore's TV Nation series,[9] for which he provided segments on offbeat cultural subjects, including selling Avon to women in the Amazon Rainforest, the Jerusalem syndrome, and attempts by the Ku Klux Klan to rebrand itself as a civil rights group for white people.[citation needed]

When TV Nation ended, Theroux signed a development deal with the BBC, where he developed Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends. He has written for a number of publications, including Hip Hop Connection and The Idler.[21]

Documentaries

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Further information: List of Louis Theroux documentaries

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

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Main article: Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

In Weird Weekends (1998–2000), Theroux followed marginal (mostly American) subcultures such as survivalists, black nationalists, white supremacists, and porn stars, often by living among or close to the people who were involved in them. His documentary method subtly exposes the contradictions or farcical elements of his subjects' seriously held beliefs. He described the aim of Weird Weekends as:

Setting out to discover the genuinely odd in the most ordinary setting. To me, it's almost a privilege to be welcomed into these communities and to shine a light on them and, maybe, through my enthusiasm, to get people to reveal more of themselves than they may have intended. The show is laughing at me, adrift in their world, as much as at them. I don't have to play up that stuff. I'm not a matinee idol disguised as a nerd.

When Louis Met...

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Main article: When Louis Met...

In the series When Louis Met... (2000–02), Theroux accompanied a different British celebrity in each programme in their daily lives, interviewing them as they go. His episode about British entertainer Jimmy Savile, entitled When Louis Met Jimmy,[22] was voted one of the top documentaries of all time in a 2005 survey by Britain's Channel 4.[23] Some years after the episode was filmed, the NSPCC described Savile as one of the most prolific sex offenders in Great Britain.[24]

In an interview in 2015, Theroux expressed his intention to produce a follow-up documentary about Savile for the BBC to explore how the late entertainer had continued his abuse for so long, to meet people he knew closely, and examine his own reflections on his inability to dig more deeply into the first case.[25] This follow-up documentary, with the title Savile, aired on BBC Two on Sunday, 2 October 2016, and lasted 1 hour, 15 minutes.[26]

In When Louis Met the Hamiltons, the former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine were arrested during the course of filming, due to false allegations of indecent assault.

In When Louis Met Max Clifford, Max Clifford tried to set up Theroux, but he was caught lying as the crew recorded his live microphone during the conversations.

After this series concluded, a retrospective called Life with Louis was released. Theroux made a documentary called Louis, Martin & Michael about his quest to get an interview with Michael Jackson to which he lost out to Martin Bashir who went on to make the documentary Living With Michael Jackson. Selected episodes of When Louis Met... were included as bonus content on a Best-Of collection of Weird Weekends.

BBC Two specials

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Main article: Louis Theroux's BBC Two specials

In these special programmes, beginning in 2003, Theroux returned to American themes, working at feature-length and in a more natural way. In March 2006, he signed a new deal with the BBC to make 10 films over the course of three years.[27] Subjects for the specials include criminal gangs in Lagos, Neo-Nazis in America, ultra-Zionists in Israel. He also explores child psychiatry, and the prison systems in California and Florida. A 2007 special, The Most Hated Family in America, received strong critical praise from the international media.

My Scientology Movie

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Main article: My Scientology Movie

In October 2016, Theroux premiered a feature-length documentary, My Scientology Movie. Produced by Simon Chinn—a school friend of Theroux's—and directed by John Dower, the film covers Theroux attempting to gain access to the secretive Church of Scientology. It premiered at the London Film Festival in 2015 and was released in cinemas in the UK on 7 October 2016.[28]

Forbidden America

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Forbidden America is a three-part series focusing on social media use in the United States among several groups, including the alt-right, rappers and pornographic film actors. On the Extreme and Online Louis meets the latest incarnation of the American far right: a political movement born out of the internet and increasingly making its presence felt on the political stage. Theroux interviews Nick Fuentes and Baked Alaska.

Interviews

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In 2022, the BBC announced a series of interviews conducted by Theroux under the title Louis Theroux Interviews, in which he meets and talks to celebrities from stage, screen and music about their successful careers and their personal lives.[29] The first series started airing weekly on BBC Two on 25 October 2022 and features interviews from rapper Stormzy, actress Dame Judi Dench, musician YUNGBLUD, adventurer Bear Grylls, comedian Katherine Ryan and singer Rita Ora. The second series of Louis Theroux Interviews started airing on 7 November 2023 and includes interviews from boxer Anthony Joshua, musician Pete Doherty, actress Joan Collins, singer Raye, activist Chelsea Manning and actor Ashley Walters.[30][31]

Books

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Theroux published his first book, The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures, in Britain in 2005. In it, he recounts his return to the United States to learn about the lives of some of the people he had featured in his television programmes.[32]

Theroux released a memoir, Gotta Get Theroux This, in September 2019.[10] He released his third book, Theroux the Keyhole, a diary recorded during the UK COVID-19 lockdowns, in November 2021.[33]

Podcasts

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In April 2020, during a COVID-19 lockdown, Theroux started the BBC Radio 4 podcast Grounded with Louis Theroux from his home, in which he interviews well-known people he finds particularly fascinating and to whom he would not necessarily have had a chance to speak before the COVID-19 pandemic.[34]

Beginning on 6 June 2023, he started hosting The Louis Theroux Podcast as part of an exclusive deal with Spotify.[35]

Other appearances

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Theroux makes a few appearances on The Adam and Joe Show DVD and has been a guest many times on Adam & Joe's radio shows,[citation needed] as well as on The Adam Buxton Podcast.[36]

As part of the Weird Weekends episode "Porn", Theroux agreed to film a cameo in the 1997 gay pornography film Take a Peak.[37] He did not perform sexual acts in the film, but made a brief appearance as a park ranger in search of a criminal. In the Weird Weekends episode "Infomercials", he featured as a live salesman for an at-home paper shredder for the Home Shopping Network.[38]

In December 2015, Theroux captained the team representing Magdalen College, Oxford on BBC Four's Christmas University Challenge. In their first-round match, the team beat the University of Exeter's team by 220 to 130 and went on to win the tournament.[39]

In April 2022, Theroux went viral after a clip of him on the YouTube show Chicken Shop Date—in which he performed a short rap he had originally written and performed in the Weird Weekends episode "Gangsta Rap" 22 years earlier—was autotuned by a TikTok user and turned into a reusable audio track with backing music.[40] The trend saw users lip-syncing to the sound and performing an accompanying dance. It has led to more footage of Theroux's rapping ability being unearthed, leading the BBC to publish an article listing seven times he "proved he was a massive hip hop head".[41] In May, Theroux released "Jiggle Jiggle", a full version of the rap which he created alongside Manchester DJ duo Duke & Jones.[42]

Personal life

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Theroux's first marriage was to Susanna Kleeman from 1994 until they divorced in 2001; he later told Sathnam Sanghera of the Financial Times, "What happened was that my girlfriend was living with me in New York. She was having trouble finding work ... legally. So we got married, to make it easier for her. We never really considered ourselves married in the full sense – there were no wedding photos or anything like that. It was really a marriage of convenience."[43]

Theroux married his long-time girlfriend, Nancy Strang, on 13 July 2012.[44] They have three sons together.[10] In a 2012 masterclass, he spoke of the challenges of combining family life with the need to work on projects.[45] They lived in the Harlesden area of London[9][10] until temporarily moving to Los Angeles in early 2013, allowing him more time to focus on his LA Stories series.[46] In 2017, they relocated to Los Angeles.[47] Theroux and his family spent COVID-19 lockdowns at their home in North-West London.[48][49][50]

Theroux is an atheist.[51] He dabbled with cannabis at 17[52] and later said that, while he acknowledges that cannabis is an intoxicant and can trigger certain mental health issues, he supports its legalisation.[53][54] He has also revealed that he has a fear of flying.[55] In 2023, he announced that he suffers from alopecia that has caused facial hair loss.[56]

In 2018, Theroux's Twitter account was hacked by cybersecurity firm Insinia as part of their attempt to highlight a longstanding security flaw in Twitter's system.[57]

Theroux is a supporter of West London football club Queens Park Rangers.[58]

Awards

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Category Show Result
2002 Richard Dimbleby Award for the Best Presenter (Factual, Features and News) When Louis Met... Won
Flaherty Documentary Award (TV) When Louis Met... The Hamiltons Nominated
2001 Richard Dimbleby Award for the Best Presenter (Factual, Features and News) Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends Won

Emmy Awards

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Year Category Show Result
1995 Outstanding Informational Series TV Nation Nominated

Royal Television Society Television Awards

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Year Category Show Result
2010 Best Presenter A Place for Paedophiles Won
2002 Best Presenter When Louis Met... Nominated

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "NLS Other Writings: Say How, Q-T". National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. November 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2023 – via Library of Congress.
  2. ^ Louis Theroux's Weird America. The New Yorker. January 24, 2021.
  3. ^ Perry, Paul (4 July 2021). "The Theroux family's colourful life laid bare in memoir The Year of the End". independent. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  4. ^ "Therouxly, madly, deeply: Jennifer Aniston engaged to Justin Theroux, member of London's premier literary family". London Evening Standard. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  5. ^ "You ask the questions: Louis Theroux". The Independent. 7 November 2001. Archived from the original on 14 August 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
  6. ^ The International Who's Who 2004. Routledge. 2003. pp. 1668. ISBN 1-85743-217-7.
  7. ^ Cheuse, Alan (4 June 1989). "A worldly education Paul Theroux imagines a much-traveled writer's active erotic life". Chicago Tribune.[dead link]
  8. ^ Current Biography Yearbook, H. W. Wilson Co., 1979, p. 415.
  9. ^ a b c Byrne, Ciar (2 December 2007). "Louis Theroux: 'When I work I like to be invisible'". The Independent. After leaving university in 1991, Theroux, who has dual British and US citizenship, decided to go to America
  10. ^ a b c d Aitkinhead, Decca (30 January 2011). "Louis Theroux: 'I'm not that comfortable doing polemic'". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  11. ^ Kurutz, Steven (17 June 2022). "How Louis Theroux Became a 'Jiggle Jiggle' Sensation at Age 52". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  12. ^ "Louis Theroux's My London". Evening Standard. 10 April 2012.
  13. ^ "Meet Louis Theroux". BBC. Archived from the original on 9 March 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
  14. ^ Hogan, Michael (25 December 2016). "Forget Christmas TV: Adam and Joe's 20th anniversary reunion podcast is the best present you'll get in 2016". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  15. ^ "The Nick Clegg story". BBC. 19 December 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  16. ^ Theroux, Louis (1999). Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends: Off-Off Broadway. New York: BBC Two.
  17. ^ "Louis Theroux: a timeline". The Daily Telegraph. 4 February 2011. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  18. ^ Russell, Anna (24 January 2021). "Louis Theroux's Weird America". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  19. ^ Williams, Zoe (4 November 2023). "Louis Theroux: 'It's not rude to ask a question. It's rude to expect an answer'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  20. ^ "Louis Theroux: 'I'm not out to take advantage of anyone. I'm just being me.'". The Independent. 23 April 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  21. ^ "Louis Theroux explains why he's so stoic in his documentaries". The Independent. 10 May 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  22. ^ Lewis, Tim (22 March 2014). "Louis Theroux: 'You get to inhabit quite an intimate space'". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  23. ^ "Channel 4's "50 Greatest Documentaries"". IMDB. 18 April 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  24. ^ "BBC commissions Savile documentary". BBC News. 18 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  25. ^ "Louis Theroux to make new Jimmy Savile film". BBC News. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  26. ^ "BBC TWO Louis Theroux: Savile". BBC. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  27. ^ Kevin Young, "Theroux promises to raise stakes", BBC, 20 April 2006.
  28. ^ Patterson, John (30 September 2016). "My Scientology Movie: Louis Theroux's exposé is the most damning yet". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  29. ^ "BBC Two – Louis Theroux Interviews".
  30. ^ "BBC Factual announces second series of Louis Theroux Interviews".
  31. ^ "Louis Theroux Interviews..." TVGuide.com. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  32. ^ Grimes, William (7 February 2007). "Back on the Road, Tracking the Red, White and Odd". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  33. ^ Chandler, Mark. "Louis Theroux charts 'weirdness of Covid world' in Pan Mac deal". The Bookseller. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  34. ^ Louis Theroux (20 April 2020). "Welcome to Grounded with Louis Theroux". Grounded with Louis Theroux (Podcast). BBC Sounds. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  35. ^ Duggins, Alexi; Verdier, Hannah; Richardson, Hollie; Braidwood, Ella (1 June 2023). "Best podcasts of the week: Stars spill their secrets to an interviewing icon on The Louis Theroux Show". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  36. ^ Verdier, Hannah (20 March 2021). "From Adam Buxton to Griefcast: what are the ultimate podcast episodes?". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  37. ^ "Internet Adult Film Database". www.iafd.com. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  38. ^ "YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  39. ^ "Exeter v Magdalen, Oxford, Christmas 2015, University Challenge – BBC Two". BBC. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  40. ^ "How Louis Theroux Became a 'Jiggle Jiggle' Sensation at Age 52". The New York Times. 17 June 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  41. ^ "BBC – 7 times Louis Theroux proved he was a massive hip hop head". BBC. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  42. ^ "Louis Theroux's viral 'Jiggle Jiggle' sound becomes full song amid TikTok fame". Dexerto. 14 May 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  43. ^ Sanghera, Sathnam (2005). "Louis Theroux". sathnam.com. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  44. ^ Theroux, Louis (2019). Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9781509880362.
  45. ^ Louis Theroux Masterclass @ Docville 2012 on YouTube
  46. ^ Bucktin, Christopher (4 April 2014). "Louis Theroux: I hope Jennifer Aniston marries my cousin Justin Theroux". Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  47. ^ Carroll, Rory (8 October 2017). "Louis Theroux: 'For all his awfulness, I admire Trump's shamelessness'". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  48. ^ "About". Louis Theroux. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  49. ^ "Louis Theroux's Weird America". The New Yorker. 23 January 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  50. ^ "Louis Theroux's private home life with rarely-seen wife and three sons revealed". hellomagazine.com. 25 October 2022. Archived from the original on 24 November 2022. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  51. ^ Billen, Andrew (4 February 2011). "Last Night's TV: Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  52. ^ Louis Theroux: "The Thing That Makes Me Great At Work, Makes Me Bad At Life!" | E198, 23 November 2022, retrieved 24 November 2022
  53. ^ "Louis Theroux on Legalising Marijuana & His Craziest Interviews! The Big Narstie Show". YouTube. 2 March 2020. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  54. ^ "The Big Narstie Show – Series 3 Episode 4". Channel 4. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  55. ^ Greenstreet, Rosanna (17 November 2018). "Louis Theroux: 'My greatest achievement ? To have made a career in TV while being nervous by nature'". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  56. ^ "Louis Theroux shares alopecia update as hair loss affects his eyebrows". Sky News. 28 November 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  57. ^ "Company that hijacked Eamonn Holmes and Louis Theroux Twitter accounts denies breaking law". Sky News. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  58. ^ "Inside Louis Theroux's Backpack | In The Bag". Youtube. 7 June 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
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