We Pulled <em>Love Island</em> Narrator Iain Stirling For a Chat

You may not recognize Iain Stirling’s face, but you’ve certainly heard his voice. The thirty-seven-year-old comedian and Love Island narrator peppers the reality dating series with his signature style of self-deprecating yet insightful comedy, spoken with his ultimate calling card: a heavy Scottish accent. The “Tonight, on Love Island…” voiceover may be a bit of a jump scare for most viewers, but once you've become accustomed to Stirling's humor it's clear that Love Island simply wouldn't be the same without his wisecracks.

“The voice of Love Island is this little character I've got in my head,” Stirling tells me over Zoom. “I like to think if he bumped into all the islanders in a bar, he wouldn't recognize them outside the world of the villa.” That level of detachment is healthy when your job is to poke fun at the contestants every day. “Love Island USA has been really great for me in terms of my headspace,” he says. “I watched what happened when Love Island UK went through a madness of publicity, and I've been careful to protect myself from that.”

Before Love Island, Stirling hosted the British celebrity panel series The Dog Ate My Homework, in which comedians paired up with children to compete in various games and skits. He put his comedic reps on the children’s show for two years until he landed the reality TV gig of his wildest dreams, and now his voice has become synonymous with the program itself. This summer, Stirling guided viewers through the seventh and highly divisive season of Love Island USA. His job wasn’t easy. Two contestants left the villa following a slew of controversies and unprecedented fan outrage.

“When I started writing on Love Island UK, my first instinct was to go, ‘Oh, look at these idiots,’” Stirling tells me. "My writing partner, Mark Busk-Cowley, made the point that, ‘Once you've done that joke, where do you go from there?’ I'm a conventional male millennial. I'm conflict averse and not great at dealing with my emotions. So, my deflection has always been humor. I'm always the person at a party that gets a bit tense and says the thing that nobody should say. But with Love Island, I get to say it with my chest… and get a bit naughty with it."

Stirling is also stepping back into the real world just like the islanders this fall. He's gearing up for a U.S. stand up tour in October that will take him across the states from The Improv in Los Angeles to Gramercy Theatre in New York City.

For now, we pulled Stirling for a chat to hear the insider gossip surrounding which Love Island USA couple he’s rooting for in the finale, and what viewers don’t see in the edits.

"I'm always the person at a party that gets a bit tense and says the thing that nobody should say," Stirling says. "But with Love Island, I get to say it with my chest… and get a bit naughty with it."

ESQUIRE: You know good comedy. Who is the funniest person in the villa?

IAIN STIRLING: Amaya's so great. She's such a comedic personality. Professional sitcom writers would take the day off work if they came up with a character like Amaya. They'd be so proud of themselves. I always try and see the islanders as that as well, sort of like characters in a TV show.

We're all very jealous that you get to watch the episodes early.

It’s the biggest perk of my life. There’s a fun couple of hours after Love Island UK where people text me like, "Come on, tell me what's going on!" But I finish recording Love Island USA at 2:30 a.m., UK time. So, I've got all this hot gossip and then I just have to go to bed. I have all this juicy knowledge, and I've got nobody to offload it on to.

During the episode with the Nic and Olandria kiss in Soul Ties, I was in my house at about quarter past one in the morning, a man comfortably in his 30s, trying to muffle my own screams. It was pretty pathetic stuff. And I collect Pokémon cards. But it’s one of those moments that everyone will remember. You could be at your mate's 50th going, “Do you remember where you were when Nic kissed Olandria?”

Are there any couples that you're rooting for in the finale?

I'm a big fan of a journey. I love the idea of putting all these people into the villa who are all the good-looking people from wherever they’re from. But in the villa, everyone is good looking. So, you can see them going, “Well what the fuck am I then?”

I look at someone like Huda, and I could have told you on Day 3 that people would love her. I could see it, because she's got fatal flaws like we all do. The things she does that are incredibly frustrating, you sort of cringe in your brain and imagine the seven times you've done the exact same thing. Like, Oh God, is that what I look like when I'm doing that. So, I love Huda for that.

Olandria is also on that same journey. I also really love Chris, because I feel like Chris is how I wish I behaved as a human being. He’s got a stoic emotional security. It's like he's been written by a British rom-com. In terms of entertainment, everyone's pulled their weight.

I'm a Nicolandria fan, so the past few episodes have felt like a huge win. What do you think about their potential connection?

I'm a Nicolandrian! I think they're really lovely for each other. They've got a great balance between them. I really hope they work out. And my word, they're an attractive couple. As they say in America, I love it for them.

This season has been affected by racially insensitive comments made by two contestants, which resurfaced before they abruptly left the show. You have a unique perspective since you’re able to see both the fan response and production side of it. What do you make of how Love Island handled Yulissa and Cierra’s situation?

I always try to remind people that, when it comes to Love Island, there is a human being behind that TV character. Just try as much as you can to be respectful of that human being whilst engaging. I know the Love Island USA team are working really hard to get that balance right. And I think they will, but obviously when something gets that big, that quickly, it's hard to get it fully correct.

I also feel like there are so many things that fans have strong opinions about that maybe they're too scared to voice—whether that be on international conflict or current politics—and Love Island has become this little pressure valve. They're like, "I can't talk about that, because I might lose my job, so instead I'm going to complain about Love Island because that just feels like a little safe space to vent frustration." And that is what the show is for. You just have to be really careful that it's not crossing that line into being horrendous about a human being.

Do you see that any contestants receive bad edits? I've seen fans suggest foul play from the producers regarding Leah Kateb last season and Huda Mustafa this season.

No, certainly not with any purpose or malice. Love Island is a show about love. I think what happens sometimes is someone can be funny, but if you're not in a couple, then it’s not going to make it into the show. Love Island USA is slightly more lenient. Last season, the three final girls had a lovely friendship, and they showed a bit of that. There are some people that might feel hard done by that. But in the narrative of Love Island, some things aren't going to make the edit, because we're trying to tell love stories. The biggest thing people need to remember is they're editing thousands of hours of footage from a whole day. It would be insane for production to go, "You know what, let's go after X, Y or Z." They don’t have the time.

"Someone can be funny, but if you're not in a couple, then it’s not going to make it into the show," Stirling reveals.

Are you excited for your U.S. stand up tour? How are Love Island USA fans different from Love Island UK fans?

In the first U.S. shows I did, and particularly the New York ones, I was expecting quite a lot of British expats. What blew my mind was how many Americans there were and how familiar they were with Love Island UK. I didn't even know you could watch it outside of the country. But everyone has a very similar vibe.

Can you give us a little sneak peek of your stand-up set?

There's going to be a lot of Love Island material in it. I've been a stand up for 15 years, and I've done Love Island for 10, but I've never really done stand up about it. This U.S. tour feels like a nice chance to do all that Love Island stuff that I won't be able to do elsewhere. I find the development of Love Island interesting, as the millennial generation of Love Island contestants move out and the Gen Z lot move in. I've noticed a few swings there that are quite funny. But even if you're not a fan of Love Island or not familiar with it, there will still be a lot of stuff for you. It's just my usual sort of like anecdotal storytelling, which is a very Scottish thing—tall tales and shaggy dog stories.