The 10 best Louis Theroux documentaries and where to watch them now
From Nazis to the 'manosphere', these are Theroux's best films
Louis Theroux is back with Inside the Manosphere, a timely, provocative documentary – and, to mark the occasion, we’ve rounded up Theroux’s 10 best docs of all time.
Tiger Kings, Nazis, Zionists, dementia, UFOs, Scientology; Theroux’s filmography is a fascinating spectrum. The range of subjects, plus his disarming, bold presence, has made him arguably the most iconic documentarian of the 21st century.
Now, he’s collaborated with Netflix for Inside the Manosphere. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a film probing the manosphere, the online community of ultra-masculine, often misogynistic influencers.
We’ve gone all the way back to his first-ever Weird Weekends episode to pick out the 10 best documentaries of Theroux’s career. Here’s a bonus: they’re all incredibly easy to find and watch.
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere
- Year: 2026
- Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Where to stream in the UK: Netflix
What it’s about: Louis Theroux delves into the manosphere: the ultra-masculine, controversial network of male influencers who propagate misogynistic ideas about women, life hacks, and “how to be proper guys”.
Why to watch: Infection, or revolution? By the end of Inside the Manosphere, it’s hard not to feel despaired by Andrew Tate and co.’s ‘red-pilled’ rhetoric and its ultra-online, gleefully hateful subjects. It’s an especially chilling entry in Theroux’s canon (particularly with the knowledge of how enormously popular these people are). But, despite their best efforts, they never get the better of him – they think it’s a sparring match, but they’re hitting a wall.
Weird Weekends: Looking for Love
- Year: 2000
- Runtime: 47 minutes
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: In the third series of Weird Weekends, Louis Theroux travels to Bangkok to learn more about Western men seeking out Thai brides, and questions if it’s love they’re truly looking for.
Why to watch: Theroux’s everyman, muted charm and near-unimpeachable composure are all part of his appeal. Yet, Looking for Love is amusingly rare in that Theroux clearly can’t believe some of the things he sees and hears. That’s not to say it’s only funny: there’s a deep undercurrent of sadness and ickiness. “Premium cringe,” as one viewer described it.
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America’s Most Dangerous Pets
- Year: 2011
- Runtime: 1 hour
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: Louis Theroux travels to the US to meet the sometimes eccentric owners of wild animals, like primates, big cats, and bears – including Joe Exotic.
Why to watch: The novelty of this entry is obvious: it’s pre-Tiger King! What’s most striking, in hindsight, is how ironed out all of Exotic’s eccentricities are – which makes some of his comments even more troubling. Still, there’s a genuine rapport with Theroux and Exotic, and compared to some of the documentarian’s sadder, heavier docs, this one is incredibly rewatchable.
Twilight of the Pornstars
- Year: 2012
- Runtime: 1 hour
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: Fifteen years after his first documentary on the porn industry, Louis Theroux returns to Los Angeles to speak to those trying (and struggling) to survive the online porn boom.
Why to watch: Theroux’s Weird Weekends episode about porn is a must-watch. But it was fundamentally, emotionally different – fun and quirky – while Twilight of the Pornstars is darkly illuminating: a glimpse at a taboo reckoning, with Theroux sharpening his edge in some teeth-clenching questioning.
Altered States: Choosing Death
- Year: 2018
- Runtime: 1 hour 3 minutes
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: In the wake of California adopting assisted dying legislation, Louis Theroux meets people weighing up the decision to end their lives.
Why to watch: This is, undoubtedly, one of Louis Theroux’s most emotional documentaries; after all, mortality is arguably the most fearsome and universal subject of them all. This is Theroux at his very best: sensitive, inquisitive, and compassionate, even when faced with death itself.
Louis Theroux's top 5 favourite documentaries
The Thin Blue Line
"The first one: Thin Blue Line, Errol Morris's amazing landmark feature about a man on death row accused of murder. It's just an extraordinary piece of work... like a lot of Errol Morris's work, beautifully shot, [and a] very composed series of interviews with various protagonists.
"Over the course of the 90 or so minutes, it becomes clear that the man on death row who's been accused of this murder – murdering a police officer – didn't do it.
"The way in which the truth is revealed and the way in which the delusion and the self-deception of the people who put this man on death row is exposed is extraordinary.
"And it's just a great example of how powerfully the truth comes across when it isn't forced, when you're not being told what to think but you the viewer put the pieces together and arrive at the truth."
Dear Zachary
"The second documentary I'm gonna recommend, jumping forward a bit, is called Dear Zachary.
"It's about a miscarriage of justice again, but a very different kind of one from Thin Blue Line. I mean, I'm reluctant to say too much about it... it's a heart-rending piece of work.
"No one I've ever recommended this to has failed to be profoundly moved by this film. It's about bereavement, it's about loss, it's about family, it's just a wonderful film."
Exit Through the Gift Shop
"I think that you know it's famously Banksy's film, the guerrilla artist, and Banksy is in it a little bit.
"But it's not really about Banksy: it's about the nature of art, I would say, [and the] nature of street art and merchandising in particular.
"I think it's a great example of a documentary in which one of the contributors, one of the subjects of the documentary, kind of takes over and takes the film in a completely unexpected direction.
"For me, that's, in a way, the dream: that sort of documentary nirvana if you like, when you're making a TV show or a film, and the protagonists kind of sit up and say, 'Well you may think the documentary is going according to your plan, but I've got other ideas.'
"And then you're in this exciting, unexpected sort of runaway coal wagon ride of filmmaking. And Exit Through the Gift Shop is also, it manages to sort of be kind of light and funny in one way and then it's also in other ways kind of a thoughtful piece of work."
The Act of Killing
"It's film made by Joshua Oppenheimer about a series of genocidal killings that took place in Indonesia in the late 60s.
"And the kind of amazing, brilliant breakthrough storytelling device that Joshua Oppenheimer uses is to get to know the men responsible for the killings.
"Two of the principal killers, who are viewed as national heroes by the way in their home country of Indonesia, there's never been a full accounting of the bloodshed. It's not only not hushed up, it's actually sort of celebrated. And the director invites the two principal killers to take part in his film and to reenact their crimes.
"And this is both a way of them sort of bringing to life, if you like, what they did, but also become something more than that. It becomes a kind of a process for them to sort of, kind of, take a reckoning... in other words, in the act of doing it not only are the crimes brought to light but you get the sense that at least one of the guys, Anwar Congo, around whom the film centres, is kind of beginning to see his crimes in a different way.
"So there's a very humanistic sort of value at the heart of it."
The Jinx
"You know, there's been a number of episodic documentaries or documentary series, like Wild Wild Country, which is amazing, and Making a Murderer, which is superb, and there are others.
"For me The Jinx sits alongside those and maybe noses ahead slightly because it's got that feeling of the story being ongoing while it's being filmed. The director has been approached by this guy, this troubling, rather strange guy, who's a scion of a rich family, real estate family, and who has these shadowy secrets in his past and possible alleged murders.
"And, so, he bizarrely decides he wants to work with the director on a documentary about his own life which becomes the jumping-off point not just of an exploration of what really happened, which is beautifully constructed using interviews and archive and also reenactments.
"But, also, [it] becomes a kind of tango between the director and the guy, Robert Durst is his name, in which the directors figuring out what's the nature of his relationship with Robert Durst, and explores his own increasing unease with what's unfolding as they've made the film together."
When Louis Met Jimmy / Savile
- Year: 2000 / 2016
- Runtime: 2 hours 4 minutes
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: Over 25 years ago, Louis Theroux spent two weeks with Jimmy Savile. Fifteen years later, in the wake of the disgraced TV personality’s many crimes, Theroux revisits the original doc and reflects on his time with him.
Why to watch: There’s an argument to be made that Jimmy Savile is the most infamous British celebrity of the past 50 years. Of course, that reputation came after Theroux’s first film with him, and it makes both docs even more chilling and grimly compelling. If anything, it was brave for Theroux to revisit it, and his guilt and discomfort is clear.
Yes, it’s two documentaries, so we’re cheating a bit – but they’re inseparable.
Louis Theroux: The Settlers
- Year: 2025
- Runtime: 1 hour
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: Louis Theroux embeds himself in the occupied West Bank, meeting both Israeli nationalist settlers (including the movement’s Zionist ‘godmother’) and Palestinians.
Why to watch: The escalation of the Israel-Gaza conflict led to The Settlers (a better, necessary follow-up to Theroux’s Ultra Zionists doc), and its essentiality (much like No Other Land) is obvious. The heated contentiousness of its subject matter aside, it’s also an evolution of Theroux’s journalistic tact: forthright and even more fearless.
Miami Mega-Jail
- Year: 2011
- Runtime: 2 hours
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: In this two-part special, Louis Theroux spends time in Miami County Jail, one of America’s largest and most violent institutions, a holding pen for almost 6,000 unconvicted inmates.
Why to watch: Three years after his San Quentin doc, Theroux made Miami Mega-Jail: the ultimate prison documentary. It’s a true peek at life inside; less narrative-driven than some of his Weird Weekends films. The access Theroux gets is extraordinary – and the results are sobering.
Louis and the Nazis
- Year: 2003
- Runtime: 1 hour
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: Louis Theroux travels to California in the early 2000s to meet modern-day Nazis – including the “most dangerous racist in America”, Tom Metzger.
Why to watch: Absurd, awful, and a total must-see, Louis and the Nazis is eye-opening and, occasionally, nail-biting. It boasts the best on-screen moment of Theroux’s career: his refusal to tell a neo-Nazi whether or not he’s Jewish, and the interviewee’s spiralling, drunken paranoia.
The Most Hated Family in America
- Year: 2007
- Runtime: 1 hour
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: Louis Theroux travels to Kansas to meet the Phelps family, the notorious founders of the hate-spewing Westboro Baptist Church.
Why to watch: It’d be fair to call The Most Hated Family in America a seminal documentary. Not only is it the best doc of Theroux’s career – jaw-dropping, upsetting, and thrillingly preposterous all at once – but it’s the purest, most convincing showcase of his talents, and try as others might, nobody has quite illustrated the farce of hate in the same way.
Read more: New documentaries and true crime to stream this month
