Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux is a BBC television presenter best known for making immersive documentaries that explore controversial and dark aspects of the human condition.

Using a gentle questioning style and an informal approach, he investigates his subjects by getting to know the people at the heart of them – from the officers and inmates at San Quentin prison to the extreme believers of the Westboro Baptist Church; male porn performers in California and young women with eating disorders in London.

Louis graduated from Oxford in 1991 and got his break in television in 1994 working for the American documentary maker Michael Moore, who hired him as a writer and correspondent on his show, TV Nation.

In 1998, Louis began making his own series, Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends, for BBC2. He graduated to making a series of profiles of eccentric celebrities, When Louis Met… More recently he has produced hour-long documentary specials. Over the years, Louis has kept true to a way of working that is uniquely his own: by charming his subjects, he’s able to offer rounded portraits of the people involved in complex social issues and human dilemmas, while always resisting easy judgements.

Louis has won numerous awards, including two BAFTAs, an RTS award, and Grierson’s Trustees’ Award. He lives in north-west London with his wife and three children.