Louis Theroux

Louis Sebastian Theroux was born in Singapore on 20 May 1970;{{cite web |last=Westbrook |first=Caroline |date=21 October 2018 |title=Louis Theroux age, career, net worth and partner as the Night in Question airs |url=https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/21/louis-theroux-age-career-net-worth-and-partner-as-talking-to-anorexia-airs-8060599/ |website=Metro}} he is the son of English mother Anne (née Castle){{cite news |last1=Perry |first1=Paul |title=The Theroux family's colourful life laid bare in memoir The Year of the End |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/book-reviews/the-theroux-familys-colourful-life-laid-bare-in-memoir-the-year-of-the-end-40605791.html |access-date=17 August 2022 |work=independent |date=4 July 2021 |language=en}} and American father Paul Theroux, a noted travel writer and novelist.{{cite web|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/therouxly-madly-deeply-jennifer-aniston-engaged-to-justin-theroux-member-of-londons-premier-literary-8046109.html |title=Therouxly, madly, deeply: Jennifer Aniston engaged to Justin Theroux, member of London's premier literary family |website=London Evening Standard |date=14 August 2012 |access-date=6 March 2016}}{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/you-ask-the-questions-louis-theroux-616093.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090814200836/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/you-ask-the-questions-louis-theroux-616093.html|archive-date=14 August 2009|title=You ask the questions: Louis Theroux|work=The Independent|date=7 November 2001|url-status=dead|access-date=1 June 2010}} His paternal grandmother, Anne Dittami, was an Italian-American grammar school teacher, while his paternal grandfather, Albert Eugène Theroux, was a French-Canadian salesman{{cite book|title=The International Who's Who 2004|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|pages=[https://archive.org/details/internationalwho2004ond/page/1668 1668]|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwho2004ond/page/1668|isbn=1-85743-217-7|url-access=registration}}{{cite news| url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/24534466.html?dids=24534466:24534466&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+04%2C+1989&author=Reviewed+by+Alan+Cheuse%2C+author+of%2C+among+other+books%2C+the+novel+%22The+Grandmothers%27+Club%22+and+the+memoir+%22Fall+Out+of+Heaven%22.&pub=Chicago+Tribune+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=A+worldly+education+Paul+Theroux+imagines+a+much-traveled+writer%27s+active+erotic+life&pqatl=google | work=Chicago Tribune | first1=Alan | last1=Cheuse | title=A worldly education Paul Theroux imagines a much-traveled writer's active erotic life | date=4 June 1989}}{{dead link|date=July 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} for the American Leather Oak company.[https://books.google.com/books?id=h5IYAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Albert-Eugene+THEROUX%22 Current Biography Yearbook], H. W. Wilson Co., 1979, p. 415. Theroux holds dual British and American citizenship.{{cite news |first=Ciar |last=Byrne |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/louis-theroux-when-i-work-i-like-to-be-invisible-761424.html |title=Louis Theroux: 'When I work I like to be invisible' |newspaper=The Independent |date=2 December 2007 |quote="After leaving university in 1991, Theroux, who has dual British and US citizenship, decided to go to America"}} He is the nephew of novelist Alexander Theroux and writer Peter Theroux. His older brother, Marcel, is a writer and television presenter. His cousin, Justin, is an actor and screenwriter.{{cite news |last1=Kurutz |first1=Steven |title=How Louis Theroux Became a 'Jiggle Jiggle' Sensation at Age 52 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/style/louis-theroux-jiggle-jiggle-tiktok.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DLDm8diP8JEoyNvEPKeKt4Iscz0i6cWc8EMr4gS_h_i-1eMENpRky0o5iYn5dDIzkwrcj7eFIK6K_3fOJy9y72PC7-If1jxba7slXaOWPhCqSJgml3IwtvvZdmdlC10HQKwbPHELZ_3oYt2qwnVZxqVHxXMnnxyvrsAhV1O9WCZwiNqVVlHrEEBkyA2IKU-LkCcw5NCF3ZTH0Z4WY06t9UONp_L7-oZld7O5K42eNNfzQueIS5BJQxRJzWkaFpt9POoR-NzMm1xpYmBZ2y655wlJIuc76uMll7ueo&smid=url-share |work=The New York Times |date=17 June 2022 |access-date=17 June 2022}}

Theroux moved with his family to England when he was one year old; he was raised in the Catford district of south London.{{cite web |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/esmagazine/louis-theroux-s-my-london-6403321.html |publisher=Evening Standard|title=Louis Theroux's My London|date=10 April 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://press.bbcamerica.com/program.jsp?id=16134 |title=Meet Louis Theroux |publisher=BBC |access-date=30 April 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110309233340/http://press.bbcamerica.com/program.jsp?id=16134 |archive-date=9 March 2011 |url-access=registration}} 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,{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comedy/comedians/forget-christmas-tv-adam-joes-20th-anniversary-reunion-podcast/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comedy/comedians/forget-christmas-tv-adam-joes-20th-anniversary-reunion-podcast/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Forget Christmas TV: Adam and Joe's 20th anniversary reunion podcast is the best present you'll get in 2016|date=25 December 2016|newspaper=The Telegraph|last1=Hogan|first1=Michael|access-date=3 June 2017}}{{cbignore}} and future Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, with whom he travelled to America.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7046587.stm|title=The Nick Clegg story |date=19 December 2007|publisher=BBC|access-date=17 April 2010}} 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.{{cite book|last1=Theroux|first1=Louis|title=Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends: Off-Off Broadway|date=1999|publisher=BBC Two|location=New York}} He read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford (1988–1991), graduating with first-class honours.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8302042/Louis-Theroux-a-timeline.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8302042/Louis-Theroux-a-timeline.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Louis Theroux: a timeline|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=4 February 2011|access-date=10 May 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}

Theroux's first employment as a journalist was in the United States with Metro Silicon Valley,{{Cite magazine |last=Russell |first=Anna |date=2021-01-24 |title=Louis Theroux's Weird America |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/louis-therouxs-weird-america |access-date=2024-11-08 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Zoe |date=2023-11-04 |title=Louis Theroux: 'It's not rude to ask a question. It's rude to expect an answer' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/04/louis-theroux-its-not-rude-to-ask-a-question-its-rude-to-expect-an-answer |access-date=2024-11-08 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} an alternative free weekly newspaper in San Jose, California.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/louis-theroux-im-not-out-to-take-advantage-of-anyone-im-just-being-me-7668956.html|title=Louis Theroux: 'I'm not out to take advantage of anyone. I'm just being me.'|date=23 April 2012|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=7 June 2019}} In 1992, he was hired as a writer for the satirical monthly magazine Spy. He also worked as a correspondent on Michael Moore's TV Nation series, 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|date=June 2023}}

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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/louis-theroux-explains-why-hes-so-stoic-in-his-documentaries-a7021996.html|title=Louis Theroux explains why he's so stoic in his documentaries|date=10 May 2016|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=7 June 2019}}

{{Further|List of Louis Theroux documentaries}}

{{Main|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:

{{blockquote|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.}}

{{Main|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,{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2014/mar/23/louis-theroux-inhabit-intimate-space-jimmy-savile | title=Louis Theroux: 'You get to inhabit quite an intimate space' | newspaper=The Guardian | date=22 March 2014 | access-date=20 March 2015 | author=Lewis, Tim}} was voted one of the top documentaries of all time in a 2005 survey by Britain's Channel 4.{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000124764/ | title=Channel 4's "50 Greatest Documentaries" | publisher=IMDB | date=18 April 2011 | access-date=20 March 2015}} Some years after the episode was filmed, the NSPCC described Savile as one of the most prolific sex offenders in Great Britain.{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31948094 | title=BBC commissions Savile documentary | publisher=BBC News | date=18 March 2015 | access-date=20 March 2015}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34709583.stm |title=Louis Theroux to make new Jimmy Savile film |publisher=BBC News |access-date=6 March 2016}} This follow-up documentary, titled Savile, aired on BBC Two on Sunday, 2 October 2016, and lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07yc9zh |title=BBC TWO Louis Theroux: Savile |publisher=BBC |access-date=3 October 2016}}

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.

{{Main|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.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4927726.stm Kevin Young, "Theroux promises to raise stakes"], BBC, 20 April 2006. 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.

{{Main|Louis Theroux: The Settlers}}

Theroux spends time with the growing community of Israeli religious-nationalist settlers. Their settlements are illegal under international law, and they have been protected by the army, the police and the Israeli government.

Since the start of the Gaza war there has been an acceleration in the establishment of settlements. The documentary explores the lives of both prominent settlers and Palestinian activists against a rise in violence against local Palestinian communities and the October 2023 attack by Hamas.

{{Main|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.{{cite news |last= Patterson |first= John |title= My Scientology Movie: Louis Theroux's exposé is the most damning yet |url= https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/30/louis-theroux-my-scientology-movie| date= 30 September 2016|newspaper= The Guardian |location=London| access-date=3 October 2016 }}

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.

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.{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001djpt | title=BBC Two – Louis Theroux Interviews }} 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.{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/louis-theroux-interviews-series-two | title=BBC Factual announces second series of Louis Theroux Interviews }}{{Cite web |title=Louis Theroux Interviews... |url=https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/louis-theroux-interviews/episodes-season-2/1031083771/ |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=TVGuide.com |language=en}}

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.{{Cite news |last=Grimes |first=William |date=2007-02-07 |title=Back on the Road, Tracking the Red, White and Odd |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/books/07grim.html?_r=1 |access-date=2024-08-28 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Theroux released a memoir, Gotta Get Theroux This, in September 2019. He released his third book, Theroux the Keyhole, a diary recorded during the UK COVID-19 lockdowns, in November 2021.{{cite web |last1=Chandler |first1=Mark |title=Louis Theroux charts 'weirdness of Covid world' in Pan Mac deal |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/louis-theroux-charts-weirdness-covid-world-pan-mac-deal-1278193# |website=The Bookseller |access-date=26 August 2021}}

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.{{Cite podcast|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p089sjcd|title=Welcome to Grounded with Louis Theroux|website=Grounded with Louis Theroux|publisher=BBC Sounds|host=Louis Theroux|date=20 April 2020|access-date=12 February 2021}}

Beginning on 6 June 2023, he started hosting The Louis Theroux Podcast as part of an exclusive deal with Spotify.{{Cite news |last1=Duggins |first1=Alexi |last2=Verdier |first2=Hannah |last3=Richardson |first3=Hollie |last4=Braidwood |first4=Ella |date=2023-06-01 |title=Best podcasts of the week: Stars spill their secrets to an interviewing icon on The Louis Theroux Show |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jun/01/hear-here-the-louis-theroux-podcast-spotify |access-date=2023-06-05 |issn=0261-3077}}

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|date=February 2022}} as well as on The Adam Buxton Podcast.{{Cite web|last=Verdier|first=Hannah|date=20 March 2021|title=From Adam Buxton to Griefcast: what are the ultimate podcast episodes?|url=http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/mar/20/podcast-buxton-song-exploder-criminal-griefcast|access-date=31 May 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en}}

As part of the Weird Weekends episode "Porn", Theroux agreed to film a cameo in the 1997 gay pornography film Take a Peak.{{cite web|url=http://www.iafd.com/title.rme/title=take+a+peak/year=1997/take-a-peak.htm|title=Internet Adult Film Database|website=www.iafd.com|access-date=1 December 2017}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8nSepYBg-M | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114064534/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8nSepYBg-M| archive-date=14 November 2013 | url-status=dead|title=YouTube |publisher=YouTube |access-date=6 March 2016}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06tl4hv|title=Exeter v Magdalen, Oxford, Christmas 2015, University Challenge – BBC Two|website=BBC|access-date=1 December 2017}}

In April 2022, Theroux went viral after a clip of him on the YouTube show Chicken Shop Date{{emdash}}in which he performed a short rap he had originally written and performed in the Weird Weekends episode "Gangsta Rap" 22 years earlier{{emdash}}was autotuned by a TikTok user and turned into a reusable audio track with backing music.{{cite web | title=How Louis Theroux Became a 'Jiggle Jiggle' Sensation at Age 52 | website=The New York Times | date=June 17, 2022 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/style/louis-theroux-jiggle-jiggle-tiktok.html | access-date=June 20, 2022}} 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".{{Cite web |title=BBC – 7 times Louis Theroux proved he was a massive hip hop head |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5P5C7qZNj5272N1CWKzQQy/7-times-louis-theroux-proved-he-was-a-massive-hip-hop-head |access-date=10 April 2022 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}} In May, Theroux released "Jiggle Jiggle", a full version of the rap which he created alongside Manchester DJ duo Duke & Jones.{{Cite web |date=14 May 2022 |title=Louis Theroux's viral 'Jiggle Jiggle' sound becomes full song amid TikTok fame |url=https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/louis-theroux-viral-jiggle-jiggle-full-song-tiktok-1823903/ |access-date=18 May 2022 |website=Dexerto |language=en}}

Theroux's first marriage was to Susanna Kleeman until they divorced in 2002;{{cite news | newspaper=Evening Standard | location=London, England | date=14 August 2012 | page=A24 | last=Hoggard | first=Liz | title=Therouxly, madly, deeply | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-standard-therouxdivorce/162592778/}} 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."{{cite web | url= https://www.sathnam.com/louis-theroux/ | title= Louis Theroux | last= Sanghera | first= Sathnam | author-link= Sathnam Sanghera | date= 2005 | website= sathnam.com | access-date= 3 October 2016 | archive-date= 13 February 2022 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220213182258/https://www.sathnam.com/louis-theroux/ | url-status= dead }}

Theroux married his long-time girlfriend, Nancy Strang, on 13 July 2012.{{cite book |last=Theroux |first=Louis |year=2019 |title= Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GpuNDwAAQBAJ |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9781509880362}} They have three sons together.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/jan/30/louis-theroux-ultra-zionists-documentary|title=Louis Theroux: 'I'm not that comfortable doing polemic'|last=Aitkinhead|first=Decca|date=30 January 2011|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=13 August 2011}} In a 2012 masterclass, he spoke of the challenges of combining family life with the need to work on projects.{{youTube|mzrHog0mwTY|Louis Theroux Masterclass @ Docville 2012}} They lived in the Harlesden area of London until temporarily moving to Los Angeles in early 2013, allowing him more time to focus on his LA Stories series.{{cite web|last=Bucktin |first=Christopher |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/louis-theroux-hope-jennifer-aniston-3363344 |title=Louis Theroux: I hope Jennifer Aniston marries my cousin Justin Theroux |website=Mirror.co.uk |date=4 April 2014 |access-date=6 March 2016}} In 2017, they relocated to Los Angeles.{{cite web|last=Carroll |first=Rory |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/08/louis-theroux-for-all-his-awfulness-i-admire-trumps-shamelessness |title=Louis Theroux: 'For all his awfulness, I admire Trump's shamelessness' |newspaper=The Guardian |date=8 October 2017 |access-date=9 October 2017}} Theroux and his family spent COVID-19 lockdowns at their home in North-West London.{{Cite web |title=About |url=https://www.louistheroux.com/about |access-date=2022-11-24 |website=Louis Theroux |language=en-US}}{{Cite magazine |date=2021-01-23 |title=Louis Theroux's Weird America |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/louis-therouxs-weird-america |access-date=2022-11-24 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Louis Theroux's private home life with rarely-seen wife and three sons revealed |url=https://www.hellomagazine.com/homes/20221025155161/louis-theroux-private-london-house/ |url-status=live |access-date=24 November 2022 |website=hellomagazine.com|date=25 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221124101738/https://www.hellomagazine.com/homes/20221025155161/louis-theroux-private-london-house/|archive-date=Nov 24, 2022}}

Theroux is an atheist.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/last-nights-tv-louis-theroux-the-ultra-zionists-jf2kwkjj2d8|title=Last Night's TV: Louis Theroux: The Ultra Zionists|last=Billen|first=Andrew|date=4 February 2011|work=The Times|access-date=7 June 2019|language=en|issn=0140-0460}} He dabbled with cannabis at 17{{Citation |title=Louis Theroux: "The Thing That Makes Me Great At Work, Makes Me Bad At Life!" {{!}} E198 | date=23 November 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj8ojSVgU9I |language=en |access-date=2022-11-24}} and later said that, while he acknowledges that cannabis is an intoxicant and can trigger certain mental health issues, he supports its legalisation.{{cite web |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQAm0mNeccw | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211118/rQAm0mNeccw| archive-date=18 November 2021 | url-status=live|title= Louis Theroux on Legalising Marijuana & His Craziest Interviews! The Big Narstie Show |date= 2 March 2020 |website= YouTube |access-date= 6 March 2020}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web |url= https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-big-narstie-show |title= The Big Narstie Show – Series 3 Episode 4 |date= 28 February 2020 |website= Channel 4 |access-date= 6 March 2020}} He has also revealed that he has a fear of flying.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/nov/17/louis-theroux-q-and-a-interview|title=Louis Theroux: 'My greatest achievement ? To have made a career in TV while being nervous by nature' |last=Greenstreet|first=Rosanna|date=17 November 2018|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=17 November 2018}} In 2023, he announced that he suffers from alopecia that has caused facial hair loss.{{cite news|url=https://news.sky.com/story/louis-theroux-shares-alopecia-update-as-hair-loss-affects-his-eyebrows-13018065|title=Louis Theroux shares alopecia update as hair loss affects his eyebrows|work=Sky News|date=28 November 2023|accessdate=28 November 2023}}

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.{{Cite web|title=Company that hijacked Eamonn Holmes and Louis Theroux Twitter accounts denies breaking law|url=https://news.sky.com/story/company-that-hijacked-eamonn-holmes-and-louis-theroux-twitter-accounts-denies-breaking-law-11593930|access-date=20 November 2020|website=Sky News|language=en}}

Theroux is a supporter of West London football club Queens Park Rangers.{{Cite web|title=Inside Louis Theroux's Backpack {{!}} In The Bag|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62BKXaqADKI|access-date=12 June 2023|website=Youtube| date=7 June 2023 |language=en}}

• List of TV Nation episodes
• List of Louis Theroux documentaries

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