Horacio Villalobos is a Mexican TV host, and actor.
Biography
Born in Mexico in 1970, he comes from a family of renowned lawyers and politicians, grandson of the prominent Antonio Villalobos, studied theater in Oxford, England and Law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Villalobos has indigenous ancestry from the state of Oaxaca. His television career began with the news channel Noticias ECO and other Televisa shows like Gaceta Cultural, 6205 el Planeta, Entre Butacas, Trapitos al Sol and Operación Triunfo. His first project in Televisa's music channel Telehit was Malas Lenguas. He eventually got his own talk show: Válvula de Escape, which he hosted for ten years, from 1996 to 2006. In 2001 he started his own comedy act Desde Gayola, which was a part of Válvula de Escape until the end of the show. Besides hosting it, he acted as Gustavito and Norberto Rivera Melo. He quit Telehit in August 2006, ending the run of these two shows. He claimed that the network was not giving the right traits for him and his workers at the show. Therefore, he toured the country with his theater show Había una Vez desde Gayola. From 2008 to 2013, he hosted "Nocturninos", broadcast on MVS Canal 52. He included some of the cast of "Desde Gayola" and Alejandra Ley, Mauricio Barcelata, María José Suarez, Denisse Padilla and Agustín Cassanova as the first cast; Paula Sanchez, Guillermo Martínez y Anibal Santiago were part of the cast in later years. Since 2011 to present day, he also hosts and produces Farándula 40, a hybrid between an entertainment news show with a late-night show, broadcast on ADN40. Villalobos hosts the show along Pilar Boliver and Mauricio Valle. In 2017 and 2018 he has produced for Mexico the theater plays A Normal Heart and an Act of God. Also, he is the main host of the Mexican edition of Fashion Police broadcast on E! Mexico, and a judge in La Academia.
TV shows
Gaceta Cultural, TV Host
ECO, TV Host
6205 el Planeta, TV Host
Entre Butacas, TV Host
Al Despertar, TV Host
Trapitos al Sol, TV Host
Malas Lenguas, TV Host
Válvula de escape/Desde Gayola, TV Host
Hoy, TV Host
Metropolis, TV Host
Nocturninos, TV Host
Farandula 40, TV Host
Mira quién baila primera temporada Univisión
Mira quién baila segunda temporada Univisión
Mira quién baila tercera temporada Univisión
Mira quién baila cuarta temporada Univisión
Fashion Police, Host E!
La de 8 / TV Azteca, Host
Filmography
Que nos pasa, Actor
Radio
Currently he's a radio co-host in the MVS radio station 102.5 FM for the program "Dispara Margot Dispara" next to Sergio Zurita. In the past, he worked for the following radio stations:
Había una vez: Desde gayola. Foro Living / Mascabrothers show center / Gira nacional
Telebasura, Mascabrothers show center/ Gira nacional
Un Corazón Normal, Teatros Helénico, Independencia, Milán y Aldama. Gira nacional.
An Act of God, Teatro Xola
Los chicos de la banda
Controversies
Villalobos is a controversial figure who has made harsh critiques to the Mexican artistic media. This has caused many in the Mexican media circuit to have animosity towards him. He holds a strong grudge against Mexican media conglomerate Televisa, criticizing and debasing the company at the slightest provocation. In a fashion segment of his show Farándula 40, Villalobos, an openly gay man himself, used references to describe South Koreanboy bandBTS that were criticized as homophobic. He described them in various ways, saying "They look like an LGBT group", asking "are they all men?", "They look like they would work at a gay club" and more. The comments caused outrage among fans of the band and they demanded a public apology. Villalobos later made a statement on Twitter, saying, "It was never the intent of our fashion section on Farándula 40 to offend the fans of BTS. Nor anyone else. If we did, we offer a sincere apology.", but many fans said it lacked sincerity and didn't address the real insults towards BTS or the LGBTQ community.