Louis Theroux - Biography

In a nutshell

Louis Theroux was born in Singapore, the son of the travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux. His mum, Anne Castle, is British. It seems Louis comes from a pretty successful family. His older brother is a writer and television presenter and his cousin, Justin Theroux, is an American actor (who is going to write the sequel to the 2008 blockbuster Iron Man). Louis was brought up in the UK and holds a dual citizenship with the USA. So, along with everything else, his surname is French Canadian.

Attending Westminster School, Louis was friends with brilliant comedians/6 Music presenters Adam and Joe and went on to get a first class degree in modern history at Magdalen College in Oxford.

You'll most likely know Louis from his BBC documentaries but his first real job was in journalism, writing for Spy magazine before he started presenting on TV Nation, Michael Moore's series. Because he covered such topics as Avon ladies in the Amazon he ended up developing his Weird Weekends series for the BBC.

Probably the best Louis series is 'When Louis Met...'. The premise was pretty simple ? spend some time with a celebrity and let everybody watching at home have a really good laugh. He met Sir Jimmy Savile, Max Clifford, Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee and Chris Eubank to name but a few.

Louis lives in London with his partner and son, Albert.

Did you know?

During the filming of 'When Louis met the Hamiltons', Neil and Christine Hamilton were arrested when false allegations of assault were made against them.