'Love Island USA' narrator Iain Stirling on what made this season so 'rare' — and a phenomenon
I hear him before I see him.
“Hello!” Iain Stirling greets me over Zoom in the Scottish accent that I’ve come to love as a newfound watcher of “Love Island USA."
It’s as if there were "a weird bit of New York where everybody spoke like they were from California,” he says. "My accent just doesn't exist outside of a little microcosm."
Within seconds of logging on to the Zoom, Stirling says he’s happy to join our “chat.”
We might as well be in the villa.
Stirling has been the narrator of “Love Island” since the British dating show launched on ITV2 in June 2015, and started narrating Season 4 of the American version. His wife, Laura Whitmore, hosted the U.K. version from 2020 to 2022.
As narrator, Stirling acts as a Puck-like, mischievous presence and a foil to the show’s host. The in-person host guides lovestruck islanders through “coupling up” ceremonies, challenges and vote-outs. Stirling, meanwhile, appears only as an omnipresent voice describing what the islanders are up to with quippy remarks.
For the uninitiated, the premise of “Love Island” combines the “surveil a bunch of strangers thrown together in one house” trope of “Big Brother” with a classic dating game — and it all practically unfolds in real time.
At the start of the show, contestants “couple up” with each other, which in the world of “Love Island,” is a stand in for a temporary relationship. Throughout each season, “bombshells” are introduced to “test” the connections. Meanwhile, viewers at home, watching at least five episodes a week, participate by voting for the couples they want to stay in the villa and on their screen.
Drama abounds, but Stirling’s commentary brings levity. With his puns and one-liners, he provides continuity and frames contestant’s dialogue with hilarious context.
We caught up with Stirling ahead of the “Love Island USA” Season 6 reunion to chat about his writing process, his upcoming comedy tour — kicking off Sept. 21 in New York City — and the true crime podcast he hosts with his wife.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What was your first reaction to the premise of 'Love Island'?
I was an out and out stand-up comedian. I’d done children’s television in the U.K., but I sort of left that behind, so to speak, to pursue stand up. I wasn’t a reality TV fan.
I thought about (‘Love Island’) in terms of, “It’s a reality TV program, and do I, as a stand-up, want to be doing reality TV?” And I didn’t, if I’m being completely honest. I said no to it a couple of times.
I was getting ready to go to the Edinburgh Comedy Festival. I lived with a fantastic comedian — his new special just came on Netflix, actually — Phil Wang, and he made the very sane point of, “Well, you sort of go to the Edinburgh Comedy Festival to get opportunities on television. So why would you not do television to go to the Edinburgh Comedy Festival?”
So I did it. And then, in the early days, we did dry runs — three or four days of stand-in contestants and a stand-in presenter, just so everyone could practice. Literally watching that, I was like, “This is brilliant.” I fell in love with it.
If you had said no, what do you think your path would have looked like?
I’ve always found this route into this sort of lighter end of things, which I’ve always really enjoyed doing. I think I probably would have still ended up going down this presenter aisle. I think I’m Bill Hicks, but quite frequently I’m sort of seen more as Ryan Seacrest.
How has your comedy evolved? What topics will you explore in your upcoming stand-up tour?
When you’re new to stand-up, you talk about more controversial stuff because getting any sort of reaction from an audience member is a reaction. If you talk about a really edgy topic, you might get a gasp. When you’re new, that’s enough. It doesn’t need to necessarily be a laugh.
I’m a lot more anecdotal now. I like to say it’s offensive comedy, but the target of my offense is always me. I talk about me being a father, and I look around and see how much easier it is to be a good dad by society’s standards. When my daughter was really young, if I had her out, pushing a buggy, I would be seen as a sort of hero, whereas mums are in this impossible position where they’ve got to have a job and be a full time mom and have the kids dressed perfectly and not feed them that thing. Then the dad could come along and go, “There’s some candy,” and just throw them around in the park for a couple of minutes, and they’re seen as a Chris Hemsworth demigod.
There’s a little bit of that in the show... I basically talk about the things that worry me, the things I’m terrible at. And it works, because people go, “Oh, God, that’s me too.” The laugh of the audience is a very cathartic thing.
What is your writing schedule on 'Love Island'?
This year is even more mad because the American one got moved slightly.
At 12 in the afternoon U.K. time, I’d log on to “Love Island U.K.” By that point, the show’s all but finished. Then we'd write for two or three hours. Done by about 4, half 4. Then I'd get a child dinner, bath time, bed time — I’d love for it to be more rock ‘n’ roll than that, but that was my life. Then I’d have some food, and then I would log on to “Love Island USA” at half past 8, which is really early Fiji time.
Then me and a couple of writer friends of mine would basically write it all. It took a bit longer in America. There are definitely more lines in the American one. We’d try to finish by about 12 or 1 in the morning, then I’d stay up till half to 3 — which is still not the end of the show for the U.S. In a dream world, I’d be staying up ‘til like, 5, 6, in the morning, but that would basically involve me never sleeping. I’ve also got a toddler who’s waking up at 7.
I’d have Friday nights off the American one and Saturdays off the U.K. one. So I’d have a period where I had a Friday night to myself and a Saturday morning to myself. That was sort of a day off, but it wasn’t in the same day.
So would you say you work well under pressure?
I got used to it. The only time deadlines come in tricky is when you get to like like Week Six, and they’ve all been together for like, three weeks. You’re like, “I’ve done so many jokes about this couple.”
If Aaron and Kaylor had never had this madness in the middle and just stayed a happy couple, and it cut to a conversation of them on the day beds for the 100th time, you’d be like, “I’ve got nothing left funny to say about this situation.”
So stability is the enemy of writing.
Yeah, and sometimes they all set off at a similar pace. It just takes a couple of couples to be really, really happy and settled, and everyone sort of goes, “Oh, is that the done thing?”
Then new people come in, and then they can’t couple up with anyone, because everyone’s really happy.
You also have a podcast, 'Murder They Wrote,' that you co-host with your wife and former 'Love Island UK' host. What is it like working together?
It’s really funny in the sense that the presenter of “Love Island” and the voiceover, we literally never work together. There’s a running joke between me and the writer of the U.K. one. Whenever we see the presenter, we’re like, “Oh, thank God,” because then there’s nothing for us to do. We don’t speak when the presenter’s there.
When Laura was doing “Love Island,” it was amazing, because we had a young family, so we got to bring everyone out to Spain, so that was cool. But we never worked together. If anything, we saw less of each other when we both worked on that show than we would have done otherwise.
The podcast is different. The couple podcast is a really popular thing. We got approached to do loads of, like, “Who’s taking out the bin tonight?” sort of couple podcasts. We quite like to keep certain aspects of our life private, so we were never that keen.
The one thing we are both genuinely into is true crime. Then we got offered this true crime podcast and we were like, “Well, this is great. We’ll literally just tell each other a true crime story every week.” When we’re both really busy with work, it’s actually a really nice day in the week where we just actually sit down, and we’re present, and we’ve not got our phones on us, and we just actually talk to one another.
The 'Love Island' Season 6 reunion is coming up. Will you be there?
Do you know what’s annoying? I just missed it.
I would have loved it, though. I used to, when I’d filmed in Spain for the U.K. ones, I’d always meet the finalists at the final. But I’ve never met any of the U.S. ones, ever.
Is there anything you'd want to say to the Season 6 cast?
I genuinely just want to meet them.
The last four girls just had elite “Love Island” contestant vibes about them, which is so rare, which why I think it’s such a good watch. So I just want to get a selfie with them.
Have you thought about leaving 'Love Island'?
It’s funny you ask. Not ever, really. I feel like I’ve got this dream job in telly.
The American one has just injected this whole new excitement into it. If you’re lucky, you can be part of something that becomes a cultural phenomenon. In the U.K., “Love Island” Series 3 or 4 became this thing where, like, the World Cup was on, but the pub would have “Love Island” on in the corner. It became this cultural thing that everyone knew.
I feel like “Love Island” this year was that (in the U.S.) It became this water cooler moment. And to be part of that again, especially now that I’m older and a lot more grateful for stuff, I’m like, “It’s incredible.”
So, yeah, I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon.
More 'Love Island'
<a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/when-is-love-island-reunion-time-how-to-watch-rcna167118" target="_blank">When is the ‘Love Island USA’ reunion? Here’s how to watch </a>
<a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/love-island-usa-season-6-phenomenon-producer-interview-rcna162366" target="_blank">Why ‘Love Island USA’ hits different this season </a>
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
