Louis Sebastian Theroux is a British-American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received three British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award.
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile was an English media personality and DJ. Savile was well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image, charitable work, and hosting the BBC shows Top of the Pops, a pop music programme, and the popular children's programme, Jim'll Fix It. After his death, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse made against him were investigated, leading the police to conclude that he had been a predatory sex offender and possibly one of Britain's most prolific. There had been allegations during his lifetime, but they were dismissed and accusers were ignored or disbelieved.
Marcel Raymond Theroux is a British-American novelist and broadcaster. He wrote A Stranger in The Earth and The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: A Paper Chase, for which he won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2002. His third novel, A Blow to the Heart, was published by Faber in 2006. His fourth, Far North, was published in June 2009. His fifth, Strange Bodies, was published in May 2013. He has also worked in television news in New York City and in Boston.
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends is a television documentary series, in which Louis Theroux gives viewers the chance to get brief glimpses into the worlds of individuals and groups that they would not normally come into contact with or experience up close. In most cases this means interviewing people with extreme beliefs of some kind, or just generally belonging to subcultures not known to exist by most or just frowned upon. It was first shown in the United Kingdom on BBC2. In 2001, Theroux was awarded the Richard Dimbleby Award as well as the Best Presenter BAFTA for his work on the series.
Prussian Blue was an American pop music duo which was composed of Lynx Vaughan Gaede and Lamb Lennon Gaede, fraternal twins who were born on June 30, 1992, in Bakersfield, California. The duo was formed in early 2003 by their mother April Gaede, a member of the neo-Nazi organization National Alliance. Their music was described as racist and white supremacist, promoting neo-Nazi rhetoric such as Holocaust denial.
Ross Kemp on Gangs is a documentary series that was broadcast on Sky 1 from 21 September 2004, until 6 January 2009. Hosted by actor Ross Kemp, the series follows Kemp and a film crew around the world as they interview members of gangs, locals who have been affected by gang violence, and the authorities who are attempting to combat the problem. Kemp then tries to establish contact within the gangs in an attempt to talk to their leader. A total of four series were filmed, three of which have since been released on DVD. On 20 May 2007, the series won a BAFTA award for best factual series.
The Most Hated Family in America is a 2007 BBC documentary film written and presented by Louis Theroux about the family at the core of the Westboro Baptist Church. The organization was led by Fred Phelps and located in Topeka, Kansas. Westboro Baptist Church members believe that the United States government is immoral due to its tolerance of homosexuality; in addition, they protest at funerals of U.S. military killed in action with signs that display text such as "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers". With a BBC film crew, Theroux travelled to Kansas to spend time with members of the church and interview its leadership. Theroux interviews church leadership including Fred Phelps and Shirley Phelps-Roper.
When Louis Met... is a series of documentary films by Louis Theroux. The series was originally broadcast on BBC Two from 2000 to 2002. In the series, Theroux accompanied a different British celebrity in each programme as they went about their day-to-day business, interviewing them about their lives and experiences as he did so.
Nazi Pop Twins is a 2007 British documentary wherein filmmaker James Quinn travels to the United States to investigate Prussian Blue, a pop duo composed of twin sisters Lynx and Lamb Gaede. The film first aired on 19 July 2007 on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. The documentary was filmed over the course of a year. Dresden Gaede, the twins' toddler half-sister and April Gaede's parents, Bill and Dianne, also appear in the documentary.
Ronald Boyer, commonly known by the stage name Rod Fontana, is a pornographic actor and director. In 2005, he was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame. He was reported to have retired from the adult film industry in 2007 to pursue religious interests, but his career continued the next year.
In these first special programmes (2003), Louis Theroux returned to American themes, working at feature-length, this time with a more serious tone than in his earlier Weird Weekends work. For example, Louis and the Brothel takes a sympathetic look at the sex workers working at a legal brothel in Nevada whereas Under the Knife takes a more critical look at the world of plastic surgery. Other programmes cover a wide variety of topics including law and disorder and Nazis.
Louis Theroux: Gambling in Las Vegas is a TV documentary written and presented by Louis Theroux. He heads to the Las Vegas Hilton, to reveal the world behind the myths of casino culture. Among the people he meets are two of the casino's 'high-rollers' and an employee who looks after them as well as a retired doctor who says she has gambled away $4 million in seven years. The programme was first broadcast on 4 February 2007 on BBC Two.
Louis Theroux: Behind Bars is a television documentary written and presented by Louis Theroux about one of America's most notorious prisons, San Quentin. There, he meets and speaks to serial murderers, gang members, at-risk inmates and guards. The film was produced and directed by Stuart Cabb, and was first aired on BBC Two on 13 January 2008.
A Place for Paedophiles is a British documentary that was televised on 19 April 2009. Produced and presented by Louis Theroux, the documentary ran for 60 minutes, and took place at Coalinga State Hospital, a mental hospital in California for sexually violent predators.
Louis and the Brothel is a 2003 British documentary by Louis Theroux.
America's Medicated Kids is a British documentary that was televised on 18 April 2010. The Louis Theroux documentary ran for 60 minutes. The documentary follows Theroux as he travels to one of America's leading children's psychiatric treatment centres, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and investigates the effects of putting children diagnosed with mental health disorders on prescription medication and the impact that medicating the child has on the family group.
Law and Disorder in Johannesburg is a Louis Theroux documentary about the crime and private security situation in Johannesburg, South Africa. Theroux travels with heavily armed private security contractors who fill a security vacuum left by the government's inability to provide adequate security via normal means, such as policing. Theroux also meets with local people in Black townships, who practice vigilantism against suspected criminals.
America's Most Hated Family in Crisis is a 2011 BBC documentary film presented and written by Louis Theroux, who revisits the family at the core of the Westboro Baptist Church. It is a follow-up to 2007's The Most Hated Family in America, also written and presented by Theroux. In 2019, Theroux made another follow-up, Surviving America's Most Hated Family, completing a trilogy of documentaries based on the church.
Louis Theroux: America's Most Dangerous Pets is a British television documentary film presented by and featuring Louis Theroux. It was first broadcast on 30 October 2011. It was released on Netflix as Beware of the Tiger. It is notable for being the first documentary to feature Joe Exotic, who would later gain worldwide fame as a result of the 2020 Netflix documentary Tiger King.
Thomas Linton Metzger was an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi leader and Klansman. He founded White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a neo-Nazi organization, in 1983. He was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Metzger voiced strong opposition to immigration to the United States, and was an advocate of the Third Position. He was incarcerated in Los Angeles County, California, and Toronto, Ontario, and was the subject of several lawsuits and government inquiries. He, his son, and WAR were fined a total of $12.5 million as a result of the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, 28, an Ethiopian student, by skinheads in Portland, Oregon, affiliated with WAR.
