Louis Theroux
Louis Sebastian Theroux (born May 20, 1970 in Singapore ) is a British - American journalist. He was best known for the documentary series Louis Theroux - A Wacky Weekend , When Louis Met ... and America Extreme .
biography
Theroux is the son of the US travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux and the British teacher Anne Castle and the younger brother of the writer and documentary filmmaker Marcel Theroux . His uncles are the authors Alexander and Peter Theroux. His cousin is the actor and screenwriter Justin Theroux .
Louis Theroux was born in Singapore because his father was teaching at the Singapore National University at the time . After completing their teaching post, the family moved to Dorset . After graduating from Magdalen College , Oxford in 1991 , Theroux worked for the free weekly newspaper Metro Silicon Valley in San Jose, California . From 1992 he wrote for the monthly satirical magazine Spy . From 1994 he also worked as a freelancer for TV Nation , an award-winning political satire show by Michael Moore , which was co-produced by BBC 2 . This engagement finally led to Theroux's first contract with the BBC 2 in 1998 for its own documentary series, which was broadcast in English-speaking countries under the title Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends (German title: Louis Theroux - A wacky weekend) and was produced from 1998 to 2000. In the individual episodes of this series, he mostly joined US subcultures such as survivors, gangsta rappers , neo-Nazis and porn actors . He lived with or in the immediate vicinity of the respective people in order to get the most realistic possible insight into their everyday life. For this work he received the 2001 British Academy Television Award for best presenter.
In the documentary series When Louis met… (2000–2002) he accompanied various celebrities in their day-to-day business and interviewed them about their lives and experiences. The first episode was dedicated to the eccentric media star Jimmy Savile and in a 2005 Channel 4 poll of filmmakers it was among the top 50 documentaries of all time. For the series he was again awarded the British Academy Television Award for best presenter in 2002.
His first book, The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures , was published in the UK in 2005 and depicts his return to the United States. There he tries to find out what has become of some of the people he has accompanied in his documentaries in the past.
In March 2006, Theroux signed a contract with the BBC to produce ten films over three years. Among other things, Theroux is on the road for the station in the USA to shoot the documentary series America Extreme , in which he takes up his investigative methods from earlier films. In the series he visits the maximum security prison San Quentin and he lives for a while with the family of the preacher Fred Phelps , who live in their Westboro Baptist Church as a religious community and represent very controversial theses on the subject of homosexuality and similar topics.
He has been married to Nancy Strang, a TV producer, since 2012 and lives with her and their three sons in London .
Documentation (selection)
- 1998–2000: Louis Theroux - A Wacky Weekend (Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends)
- 2000–2002: When Louis met ...
- 2003: Louis, Martin & Michael
- 2003: Edelpuff in the desert (Louis and the Brothel)
- 2003: Louis and the Nazis (Louis and the Nazis)
- 2007: Gambling in Las Vegas (Gambling in Las Vegas)
- 2007: The Most Hated Family in America
- 2007: Under the Knife
- 2008: Behind Bars
- 2008: A Holiday to Kill - On Safari With Hunting Tourists (Louis Theroux's African Hunting Holiday)
- 2008: Killadelphia (Law and Disorder in Philadelphia)
- 2008: Johannesburg (Law and Disorder in Johannesburg)
- 2009: A Place for Pedophiles
- 2009: The City Addicted to Crystal Meth
- 2010: America's Medicated Kids
- 2010: City without mercy and law (Law and Disorder in Lagos)
- 2011: Zoff in the Holy Land (The Ultra Zionists)
- 2011: watch out tiger! (America's Most Dangerous Pets)
- 2012: Autism (Extreme Love: Autism) [1]
- 2012: Living with Dementia (Extreme Love: Dementia)
- 2012: In the Valley of the Porn (Twilight of the Porn Stars)
- 2014: Louis Theroux's LA Stories
- 2015: My Scientology Movie (Film)
- 2015: By Reason of Insanity
- 2015: Transgender Kids
- 2016: A Different Brain
- 2016: Savile
- 2017: Talking to Anorexia
- 2017: Dark States (three episodes)
- 2018: Louis Theroux: Docs That Made Me
- 2018: Altered States (Three Episodes)
Web links
- Louis Theroux in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Louis Theroux's official website (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Louis Theroux - A Timeline Daily Telegraph , February 4, 2011. (English)
- ^ BAFTA TV Award 2001 Internet Movie Database, accessed November 3, 2012.
- ↑ Louis Theroux, “I'm not that comfortable doing polemic,” The Guardian January 30, 2011, accessed April 5, 2015.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Theroux, Louis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Theroux, Louis Sebastian (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1970 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Singapore |