Katillia to JJ the porn star: Where the stars of Louis Theroux's documentaries are now.

As a journalist and documentary-maker, Louis Theroux has covered a huge amount of ground. And by ground, we mean criminal organisations, the porn industry, drug dens, Scientology’s heartland, and the depths of racist America, just to name a few. So, we thought we’d take a dive into the British documentary king’s archives and see where some of his most controversial subjects are today. We can tell you now, you might be surprised – relieved, even.

Katillia: Dark States – Heroin Town 2017.

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In 2017, Louis set his sights on Huntington, West Virginia, a town ravaged by a heroin pandemic. There, he met a 25-year-old named Katillia Martin, whose drug dependency issues began when she was just a teen, her poison then was painkillers. By 17 it was heroin and she was caught in a relationship with her abusive dealer boyfriend, Alvin. 

She told Louis she used heroin at least six or seven times a day. “Underneath is all she was so intelligent and charming, and seemed capable of so much, that it was very sad,” Louis recalled. After Louis’ visit, Katillia started using meth, too, and her life spiralled further out of control. At one point she overdosed, was beaten up, and woke up on life support. 

Fast-forward to 2021, and Louis came face to face with Katillia, and she told him she’s clean, despite the “occasional drink here and there.” Now she looks like a different woman. Younger, groomed and living in a beautiful, bright, clean home. Being on death’s door was the push she needed to change her life. “I’ve built back relationships and I want to hold onto them,” she told Louis. “They feel more important than the people I was around.”

JJ Michaels: Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends 1997.

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In 1997 we met successful, young, up-and-coming pornography actor, JJ Michaels.

“He had a can-do attitude, a work ethic, and he was focussed. And he seemed sort of vulnerable,” Louis recalled. At the time of filming, cases of HIV were emerging in the industry.

“I have a death wish anyway, so it doesn’t really matter,” was JJ’s take on the frightening workplace issue. His admission was startling, but reflective of his state of mind. Just a short time later he would go into a deeper depression after his son’s death.

“JJ and I stayed in touch and became friends,” Louis revealed, adding that the porn prodigy was now living a life far from America’s skin flick hub, San Fernando, California, where they first met. JJ’s now an IT consultant in Ukraine. He’s also happily married and has a young daughter. He’s been married six times in total. “It took a lot of failed relationships to realise who I am, who I need to look for and how to build a loving, intimate relationship that’s not just based on carnal physicality.”

Mike Cain: Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends 1998.

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Welcome to Almost Heaven, a disturbing place named by its inhabitants. They arm themselves with assault rifles because they think a war is on their doorstep. They hate the government, and even suggested to Louis, “For an American to live without a gun, it’s like you guys living without tea.” Sheesh. Nestled in Idaho, Montana, they’re straight up right-wing patriots and survivalists with a thirst for weapons.

“There’s been a conspiracy for some years by a group of people that have been known loosely as the New World Order. The problem with the New World Order and a one world government is that it requires a benevolent dictator…and if you don’t have a benevolent dictator, you have a tyrant.” 

To Mike Cain, war was imminent, and the government was controlling citizens, tracking them with surveillance and taking away their liberties. Yep, Mike was 100 per cent opposed to gun reform. “I grew to like him and felt like he had a good heart,” Louis said, and admitted he and Mike kept in touch over the years, and learnt shortly after filming his American mate had been arrested for “asserting his rights”. For everyday people, that’s driving without license plates. 

In 2001 he was arrested again for not paying property taxes. His wife eventually left the sheltered, jail-like community, and incredibly, Mike followed suit some time later. Louis said he “lost the will to fight”, but did he? “I moved my family up there as a means to protect them,” Mike explained, before hitting out at his former neighbours for not being outspoken enough. “What those people up there were, were just a bunch of scared blowhards that wanted to talk and do nothing. It was never a unified community, ever.” Today, his biggest beef is COVID masks.

April and the popstar twins: Louis and the Nazis 1999.

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Lynx and Lamb were 10-years-old when their mother first forced them to perform White Nationalist music under the name Prussian Blue. It was 1999, and all their mum could think about was her adoration for racism and making her young daughters sex symbols within the Neo-Nazi movement. 

“I think they’re going to be an example, and to show being proud of your race is something that would be very appealing. I mean, what red-blooded American boy isn’t going to find two blonde twins, 16-year-olds singing about white pride and pride in your race…very few are not going to find that very appealing,” she said, oddly, already envisioning Lynx and Lamb’s appeal. 

April was so racist, Louis believed she was incapable of change. Her daughters lived under her strict regime, yet they were allowed to play video games depicting “skin heads” shooting people of colour. They were also allowed to sing white supremist rock music at the top of their lungs.

“After the film came out it caused quite a stir,” Louis admitted, and we remember. It was hard to open a news website or paper without the girls making headlines.

But by 2011, the girls were 19 and had turned their back on their mother’s beliefs. “They describe themselves now as very liberal and have openly apologised for the things they said and did in the past,” Louis said.

In 2021, they said they had anger and resentment toward their mother when they became teens, because of the abhorrent things she taught them, and forced them to perform. Now they just pity her.

“Watching it now, it’s very hard to comprehend,” Lynx said, while Lamb added they “didn’t understand it…racism and those beliefs are taught and learned, and they can also be unlearned and untaught.”

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