Former Islanders are battling for $100,000 on Love Island Games, and while they find romance along the way, their moves are once again narrated by the franchise’s iconic voice. But, who is Iain Stirling?
Stirling, born on January 27, 1988, in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a 35-year-old comedian with a stacked resume in different realms of entertainment. He’s married to former Love Island UK host Laura Whitmore and they have one daughter together, Stevie Ré, who was born in 2021.
He started working in the mid-00s as a children’s entertainer and writer on BBC’s CBBC channel in the United Kingdom while performing stand-up comedy. According to Speakers’ Corner, Stirling reached the finals in two student comedy competitions while studying for his law degree at Edinburgh University before the turn of the decade. And although he obtained a law degree, the cheeky and sarcastic funnyman went all in on his entertainment career.
His first big break was when he signed on to host The Dog Ate My Homework from 2014 to 2019. It’s a children’s show on CBBC featuring kids and comedians teaming up to compete in games and challenges. Stirling appeared in 74 episodes, according to IMDB, and his work on the show awarded him 2016’s BAFTA Children’s Award for “Best Presenter,” and he was also nominated for the same award in 2018 and 2014.
While Stirling was enjoying his success on CBBC, he was hired as Love Island UK’s narrator ahead of its first season in 2015 — and the rest was reality TV history.
Stirling’s Scottish accent has been the voice of all 10 seasons of the show’s original version, as well as on other spin-offs from the franchise, including Love Island US. Stirling and his writing partner, Mark Busk-Cowley, collaborate to create the bold and sometimes hilariously deprecating lines that he delivers.
In an interview with GQ in 2021, Stirling admitted that the show’s producers have to reel them in occasionally if they get a little too comfortable insulting the show.
“We did one the other day, where the joke was, ‘I mean, this is a low-budget, lowbrow television show with an annoying voiceover,'” Stirling said. “The punchline was, ‘Which is ridiculous, because this show doesn’t have a low budget!’ The producers asked me to not outright say it’s low budget. But the reason the joke is funny is because budget is the one thing we’ve got going for us here.”
Stirling also explained that he was apprehensive about taking the Love Island gig at first thinking that it would “100%” negatively affect his comedy career. “I was panicked,” Stirling said. “I didn’t want to do it at first. You know, I always thought, ‘I’m going to be the next Bill Hicks, and do important comedy.’ This sounds… I hate that, ‘I nearly turned it down’ story.”
Stirling said that he ultimately took the job thinking that because it was on the lesser-watched channel, no one would see it — he could collect a paycheck and continue his career without any irreparable harm.
Little did Stirling know, Love Island was bound to blow up in the United Kingdom. It’s one of the biggest reality shows across the pond, which is proven by its 10-season run and several spin-off series, and Stirling’s career has undoubtedly exploded since taking the faceless job.
Stirling also keeps himself busy with podcasting, stand-up comedy, gaming, acting, and writing
Love Island is not all Stirling’s focused on the past few years. He has several acting and writing credits to his name. But most notably, he’s the creator of two television series, Buffering and CelebAbility. Buffering, a sitcom he also stars in, has aired for two seasons with the second wrapping earlier this year. CelebAbility is another brainchild of Stirlings, and it was on air for seven seasons from 2017 to 2023.
It wasn’t renewed by ITV, according to a report by Yahoo! News. Stirling hosted the comedy game show that pitted “members of the British public against celebrities in a series of rounds based on unusual skills or abilities that the celebrities believe they naturally possess.”
The Scot has also written a book, Not F*cking Ready to Adult: A Totally Ill-Informed Guide to Life, which was published in 2019. He also appeared on the wildly popular English comedy-competition show Taskmaster that same year, and he placed second overall.
Stirling is currently preparing for his newest stand-up comedy tour, coined “Relevent,” which will begin in March 2024. He also hosts a brand new true crime podcast with his wife called Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore & Iain Stirling, as well as a Spotify-exclusive true crime show, Partners in Crime with Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling. And if that isn’t enough, Stirling is also a gamer and streams on Twitch.
Love Island Games is now halfway over, but there are still plenty of episodes coming our way, and that means several more quips from Stirling are en route as well.