Before the Hot Priest in the BBC comedy series Fleabag, there was Carl Lentz. For a time the young, tattooed “hype-priest” was the face of the global megachurch Hillsong, preaching a cool brand of Christianity to sports stars and celebrities such as Justin Bieber.
“Carl was incredibly charismatic, an insanely good speaker, able to break down the Bible in relevant, almost street terms,” explains the film-maker Stacey Lee. “He was funny, he was vulnerable, he just gave so much of himself. He unto himself became his own celebrity.”
