If you don’t know who Louis Theroux is, I’m sorry to tell you that you may have been living under a rock for all of these years.
From his series Weird Weekends which ran from 1998-2000 where he met porn stars, swingers, survivalists, and wrestlers just to name a few, to his recent series Louis Theroux Interviews which has starred the likes of Katherine Ryan and Stormzy, he’s the documentarian for a generation.
Last night (November 13th) though, his brother took to the small screen with his investigative series of unsolved brutal murders in the 70s in The Playboy Bunny Murder.
While you may be surprised to know that Louis and his brother have such similar roles, it turns out that they’re not the only Therouxs in entertainment and, actually, their ties go across the pond and even include Friends star Jennifer Aniston.
How the Theroux family weaves through culture
So, we’ll start with Marcel Theroux. Marcel is Louis’ big brother and wrote the award-winning novel Strange Bodies which was released in 2014. He’s also presented documentaries for Unreported World on street children, Russian nationalism and the trend of “Junior Idols” in Japan.
While he and brother Louis have similar roles in television, Louis has a more offbeat approach, exploring the oddities of the world while Marcel is far more straightforward.
In a Radio Times interview back in 2017, Marcel described he and his brother as “chalk and cheese” which perhaps explains their very different approaches to reporting. However, he had also admitted to the Independent years earlier that while they are different, they’re also “very close.”
Storytelling is somewhat in the brothers’ blood though as their father, Paul, wrote The Great Railway Bazaar, a travelogue telling the stories of Paul’s travels throughout Asia.
The book tells the stories of the sights that he saw along the way but more importantly, the people he met and the stories they had to tell. The apple really didn’t fall far from the tree for the Theroux sons, clearly.
Then there is Justin Theroux. Justin is Louis and Marcel’s cousin from the states. Justin starred in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, The Girl On The Train and American Psycho but in recent years, he’s most likely known for his brief marriage to Friends star Jennifer Aniston.
The relationship between the two was between 2011 and 2018, they married in 2015. The split was reportedly amicable and back in 2021, Justin said if the two weren’t in contact it would be “a loss” for him.
Louis Theroux Interviews... Pete Doherty airs tonight (14 November) at 9pm on BBC Two.