Louis Theroux
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Louis Sebastian Theroux (born 20 May 1970) is a British broadcaster holding both British and US citizenship , best known for his series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends and When Louis Met….
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[edit] Biography
Theroux was born in Singapore[1], the younger son of the American travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux and his British first wife Anne Castle. His elder brother is the writer and television presenter Marcel Theroux. He is the cousin of American actor Justin Theroux. He holds dual US/British nationality; Theroux retains his US citizenship, although his upbringing in Britain and his English accent often lead people to think he is solely British.
Louis was educated at Westminster School (where he was a friend and contemporary of the comedians Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish). He then went to Magdalen College, Oxford where he gained a first class degree in modern history. Also while at Oxford, he developed his skills at table football, building upon his previous experience of the game gained during a gap year in Zimbabwe.
It has been suggested that Louis pioneered the "Geek Chic" aesthetic in Britain, characterised by large spectacles,corduroy trousers,knitted jumpers and either unstyled or overly styled hair. When interviewed by Elle magazine in December 2005,Louis commented that he "didn't dare pick it <the book "Geek Chic"> up, in case anyone thought I imagined myself a chic geek."
His first journalism job was at Metro Silicon Valley, an alternative weekly in San Jose, California. In 1992 he was hired as a writer for Spy magazine, then got his break in television working as a correspondent on Michael Moore's TV Nation series [2]. At TV Nation, he made segments on off-beat cultural subjects, including Avon Ladies in the Amazon, the Jerusalem syndrome, and the attempts by the Ku Klux Klan to rebrand itself as a civil rights group for white people. When TV Nation ended he was signed to a development deal by the BBC, out of which came Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends. He also continues to write for The Idler.
On 13 May 2001 Theroux won the "Richard Dimbleby Award for the Best Presenter (Factual, Features and News)" at the British Academy Television Awards for his series Weird Weekends. He won it again on 21 April 2002, for his series When Louis Met….
His first book, The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures, was published in Britain in 2005. In this book, Theroux returns to America to find out what has happened in the lives of some of the people he featured in his television programmes since he last saw them.
He lives in Harlesden, north-west London.
[edit] Documentaries
In Weird Weekends (1998–2000), Louis followed marginal, mostly American subcultures like survivalists, gangsta rappers, Nazi Skinheads and porn stars, often by living among or close to the people involved. Often Theroux's documentary method subtly exposes the contradictions or farcical elements of some seriously-held beliefs. Theroux himself describes the aim of the series 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. | ” |
In When Louis Met… (2000–2002), Theroux accompanied a different celebrity in each programme as they went about their day-to-day business, interviewing them about their lives and experiences as he did so. His episode about the DJ and charity fundraiser Sir Jimmy Savile When Louis Met Jimmy was voted one of the top fifty documentaries of all time in a survey by Britain's Channel Four. In When Louis Met the Hamiltons, the disgraced Tory MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine were arrested following false allegations of indecent assault during the course of filming.
In his most recent programmes (2003), Theroux returned to American themes, working at feature-length, this time with a more natural tone — for example, Louis and the Brothel, which takes a sympathetic look at the prostitutes working at a legal brothel in Nevada. In March 2006, he had signed a new deal with the BBC to make ten films over the course of three years. [3]
Louis Theroux's new show started on Sunday 4th February 2007 on BBC 2.
The First show in his new series was entitled Gambling in Las Vegas and followed Louis investigating the High rollers and those who managed casinos in Vegas. Dr. Martha Ogmund was one of the main characters of the show and as the interviews with her took place it became evident that she was clearly addicted to gambling. Near the end of the programme it was revealed in her entire Gambling career she had lost in excess of $4,000,000. All in all Louis was $1,500 up at the end of the show.
"It might be illogical and self defeating, but when you're winning, gambling makes perfect sense." Louis Theroux 4th February 2007
[edit] References
- ^ http://internettrash.com/users/louis_theroux/overview.html
- ^ Louis Theroux guide. http://www.thecustard.tv+(2004).+Retrieved on 2006-10-12.
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4927726.stm
[edit] External links
- BBC News, Louis Theroux meets "The Most Hated Family in America"
- Biography of Louis Theroux from A Louis Theroux Website
- Theroux promises to raise stakes — a BBC News article about his new series April 20, 2006
- Something weird about Louis — an interview by Gyles Brandreth and published by the Telegraph (filed December 11, 2001)
- When Amazon Met Louis
