How my brother went from liberal Hollywood actor to manosphere 'messiah' Jacqui Wakefield,BBC Global Disinformation Unit ,Owen PinnellandKaty Ling,BBC EyeYouTubeEl Temach is Latin America's biggest manosphere influencer, with 11 million followersWarning: This story contains offensive languageTen years ago Luis Castilleja was a free-wheeling creative, seeking his fortune as an actor in Hollywood, and enjoying the liberal Los Angeles lifestyle. Now he is better known as El Temach, Latin America's biggest manosphere influencer, whose misogynistic and hyper-masculine content has gained him more than 11 million social media followers.His sister Alex says his transformation is shocking and they no longer speak."I don't like saying El Temach because for me he's a completely different person. So I'm sister with the human that he was," she says.Alex, a design engineer from Mexico, says her brother's metamorphosis shows how even the most unlikely people can be tempted into making manosphere content, once they realise the money and fame to be made.Alex says she and her brother have not spoken for two years as a result of his viewsThe impact of Western influencers such as Andrew Tate has been well documented.
But a BBC World Service investigation has scrutinised the content and followings of 15 other influencers - based in South and East Asia, Latin America and Africa - and found that, on average, their followings have tripled in the past three years. These regions have seen relatively recent gains in gender equality, and experts say this environment is fuelling men's hunger for manosphere content.As well as El Temach, our investigation also focused on Andrew Kibe - a household name in Kenya who promotes male self-empowerment and misogyny on social media. Both have repeatedly attacked single mothers, and regularly accuse women of being "gold diggers" who manipulate men.Both influencers, we found, are earning large sums of money from their platforms.El Temach and Kibe both strongly deny their content is misogynistic, with Kibe - in an interview with the BBC - even disputing the existence of the concept.
"Misogyny is not hate of women" - Andrew Kibe disputes the term's definition in BBC interviewWe wanted to see the impact this content has on consumers. Two Gen Z followers - one in Kenya and one in Mexico - gave the BBC uncensored access to several years of their social media activity, allowing us to see thousands of their posts, views, likes, comments and shares.The data reveals their personal journeys into the manosphere.Mexican Julián first started using Instagram aged 16, liking and commenting on content about cars, fitness and self-development. His history shows that he first liked a video from El Temach a few months later, after it appeared in his recommended feeds.Now 19, he has so far liked more than 3,000 videos from dozens of manosphere creators.
Julián told the BBC he felt "feminism has made men's problems invisible".Listen to the podcast here, and outside the UK, you can watch the film on YouTubeThat sentiment is a key tenet of El Temach's messaging - but he did not always hold these views, according to his sister Alex.He grew up wanting to be a performer, she says, and after studying theatre in Mexico City, moved to LA to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.But he returned home a couple of years later, she says, after a break-up and failure to book regular work. These setbacks motivated him to help other young men navigate difficult experiences, she says, and he began in 2020 to post content focused on male self-development."I think at the beginning it was very noble how he wanted to help other men to feel worthy and valuable, and that's how he started," Alex says.But this quickly "twisted" into something else. "He got this Messiah complex, like he's the one that has to fix [men's issues]," she tells us.And she says he soon began to blame women for the difficulties his male followers were navigating.
She is not sure how far her brother actually believes the misogyny he espouses - and how much is just for social media likes and views."He believes some things - and others, he's just experimenting what works best with the algorithm."Alex CastillejaAlex says she and her brother were close as childrenHer brother admitted he was simply copying Andrew Tate, says Alex. "Tate was super big at that time, [and] since he saw it worked he just started pushing [his argument] further and further."She says her brother's content soon became mirrored in his behaviour towards her."Anything I would express… was taken like a feminist belief… an affront to his persona."The BBC asked El Temach to take part in our documentary. He initially agreed to speak to us, inviting us to film his world tour which began in the US, but just days before we were due to fly out, he went live on YouTube telling his followers he had no intention of participating."BBC and Miss Jacqui from the BBC, we don't need your permission to be men.
Make your documentary, don't involve me or my bros. [Expletive] the BBC."We nevertheless went to his show in Las Vegas, which was a mixture of self-improvement advice and sexist rhetoric, including advising his fans to avoid "sluts" because they will never change, and that single mothers are "not a good catch" because their status reflects poor life decisions and character flaws.Afterwards, we tried to confront him about these statements, but his security blocked our way.El Temach's earnings from content, including these shows, is sizeable. According to our analysis, from April 2025-26 El Temach made an estimated $1.5m (£1.1m) from social media views alone. He also made $200,000-300,000 (£149,000-£223,211) from YouTube "Super Chats" - in which fans pay to boost the prominence of their comments during livestreams, often asking for relationship advice - as well as $800 (£595) per person for small-group workshops.
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