Louis Theroux

Louis Sebastian Theroux was born on May 20, 1970 in Singapore to American novelist/writer Paul Theroux and his English wife Anne. He has an elder brother named Marcel who is also a writer as well as TV presenter. His cousin Justin Theroux is an actor and screenwriter. Theroux’s uncles are writer Peter Theroux and novelist Alexander Theroux. His great-great-grandparents were music critic/author Gustav Kobbé and financier/ railroad magnate H. B. Hollins.

Theroux studied at Westminster School and later graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1991. Talking about his love life, the British-American broadcaster cum documentary filmmaker was earlier married to Susanna Kleeman. Their marriage was a marriage of convenience which eventually ended in a divorce. In 2012, he married his longtime sweetheart Nancy Strang. As of now, the couple has three children.

Louis Theroux began his career as a journalist for ‘Metro Silicon Valley,’ a free weekly newspaper in San Jose. In 1992, he started writing for Spy magazine. During this time, he also served as a correspondent on the ‘TV Nation’ series. After the series ended, he signed a contract with BBC for developing the documentary series ‘Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends.’ Till date, Theroux has served as a writer for numerous publications including ‘The Idler’ and ‘Hip Hop Connection.’

In 1998, Louis Theroux developed the documentary ‘Weird Weekends’ for BBC. This documentary gave the audience the chance to get brief glimpses into the lives of American subcultures, such as black nationalists, survivalists, adult film stars, and white supremacists. The documentary series ran for three seasons and ended in 2000.

After this, Theroux came up with the documentary ‘When Louis Met...’ in which he interviewed a different British celebrity in each episode. Then he began working on his BBC Two specials. In these specials, which began airing in 2003, the British-American documentary filmmaker returned to American subjects, working in a more natural way. The documentaries in these specials include ‘Louis, Martin & Michael,’ ‘Louis and the Nazis,’ ‘Gambling in Las Vegas,’ ‘Transgender Kids’ and ‘Savile.’

A 2007 special titled ‘The Most Hated Family in America’ garnered strong critical praise from the global media. The last documentary of the series titled ‘Talking to Anorexia’ was released on 29 October 2017.

In 2014, Theroux also developed a documentary series titled ‘LA Stories’. The episodes of this documentary series included ‘LA Stories: City of Dogs’, ‘LA Stories: Edge of Life’ and ‘LA Stories: Among the Sex Offenders’. Two years later, he premiered the feature length documentary ‘My Scientology Movie’ in which he recreated accounts of incidents shared by ex-members of the controversial Church of Scientology. In 2017, he came up with the documentary series ‘Dark States’.

Theroux did a cameo in the 1997 gay adult flick ‘Take a Peak’. In 2015, he appeared on BBC Four's quiz ‘Christmas University Challenge’ in which he served as the captain of the team representing Magdalen College, Oxford.

Theroux has published a book titled ‘The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures’.