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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
The ‘Love Island USA’ voiceover guy is in on the joke
By Scottie Andrew, CNN
Updated:
8:00 AM EDT, Sun August 24, 2025
Source: CNN
The cast of takes their televised search for love extremely seriously.
Thankfully, the voice of “Love Island” does not.
Iain Stirling narrates the daily dramas of Peacock’s reality hit,
cranking out reliably hilarious commentary about contestants’ back
tattoos, dry-humping challenges and mosquitoes that interrupt intimate
moments. The Scottish stand-up comedian is the show’s unlikely
breakout star — and he doesn’t even pop by the .
CNN chatted with Stirling ahead of the Season 7 reunion about taking
hot people down a peg, sympathizing with reality TV villains and how
the “Love Island” sausage gets made.
This conversation has been edited for clarity.
Has your approach always been to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the
show, or were you playing it straight in those early seasons?
My initial reaction to it as a young stand-up comedian was, “Look at
these idiots!” Whereas Mark (Busk-Cowley, series co-creator) was
going, “You can’t do that because it’s not nice, but more
importantly, it’s one tone. If you start there, where do you go from
there? All you can do is be more aggressive and more cruel.”
So we’d look for those little shots in the back, those little moments
that maybe people didn’t notice. And if someone’s got a ridiculous
outfit on, or their own name tattooed on their back, it brings you in
with the viewers when you say something. They’re like, “Thank God.
I thought that was just me!” It’s sort of like doing observational
stand-up but about a really specific show.
We definitely didn’t get away with as much at the beginning on the UK
one. We used to be like, “Oh, the challenges are terrible. You should
switch over to Comedy Central right now, there’s quite a good program
on there.” (CNN: This season’s challenges included a dairy
farm-themed event in which contestants spit milky fluid down each
other’s throats; another dressed the cast like sexy lumberjacks and
made them gyrate on a log-shaped see-saw.) You obviously can’t say
that. Whereas in America, we were brought in specifically because they
liked what the UK show did.
You are kind of the voice of reason. Everyone is taking it deadly
seriously, so it’s good to have that voice.
I suppose my rule of thumb is always, you’re never cruel about
someone, but you can be cruel about what someone’s done. I’m not a
huge fan of comedy that hits down on a group of people who are being
attacked because they’re in that group of people. But I feel like
anyone’s free rein if it’s because of a thing that they did.
They are, for the most part, genuine in their search for love, which is
sweet, but they are also easy to tease at times.
Making fun of good-looking people feels good.
Yeah, they can take it. So are you doing both “Love Islands,” UK
and US, at the same time? (Both seasons ended at the beginning of this
month.)
Yeah, now I am. It’s kind of a mad schedule, but it means I’ve got
a bit of summer. If it wasn’t both at the same time, I’d be in a
studio in London somewhere, still doing it. So I quite like smashing it
all out in one big lump.
It’s nice to see the sun for a few weeks. But how many hours, then,
are you in that voiceover booth?
Essentially, it’s 12 in the afternoon ‘til 3 in the morning every
day. There’s a bit of a break in between, so I can have dinner with
my family, then do my daughter’s bedtime. Sometimes I even go into
town and do a gig, which is mad. People think I’m nuts, but I have to
do stand-up, or otherwise I’ll go insane.
It can’t all be Huda and Jeremiah.
No, I’ve got to do jokes about something else.
Do you bring it home with you? Like, are you telling your wife, “I
just watched the craziest breakup”?
Not at all. It’s funny, because America went so big, this was the
first year where she got “Love Island USA” in her algorithm. So
she’d be like, “What’s this ?” (CNN: Stirling is married to
former “Love Island UK” host Laura Whitmore, and the
“‘mamacita’ thing” involved Huda telling Nic she was a single
mom. Nic misunderstood.)
It’s quite easy to stay away from it, because it’s American. I’m
in the UK. So I’ve got this idea: The voiceover is this character who
cares so passionately about those people, but if he met any of them in
real life, outside the context of the villa, he’d have no idea who
anyone was, because he’s just like, “The villa’s all that
matters.” So I quite like being completely separated from the rest of
the world — the voice that only knows what’s happening in that
villa.
The faceless, disembodied voice of “Love Island.”
Exactly — omnipotent, completely ignorant to any outside influences.
When you’re recording, are you watching raw footage of everyone and
trying to spin comedy from that?
We’re watching as much of a final edit as humanly possible. I think,
in a dream world, I’d finish work about 7 in the morning, but that
would mean I literally would never sleep.
In the early episodes, when everyone’s still getting to know each
other, are the conversations boring? Your intros to the conversation
are funny. But is that on purpose, because their conversations are kind
of meh?
People think it’s boring because they were so emotionally attached to
the contestants at the end of the last series of “Love Island.” And
then when it fast forwards to next year and it’s just two people you
don’t know or care about having a chat, it’s just more boring. The
thing you’ve got to remember as well — those people have never been
on telly. They’ve got cameras everywhere, and they’re in this new
environment.
And also, I think they’re sort of reinventing themselves as people. I
find it really fascinating that all of those people in the villa, give
or take, have always been the best-looking person in their college, the
best looking person in their city, the best looking person in their
state, some of them. “The good looking one” — that’s their
thing. And then all of a sudden they’re in the villa, and they might
be the least attractive boy there. And that must be such a mindf**k,
getting your head around, “All right. Well, I’m not the good
looking one. Then what am I?”
“Am I funny?”
And it’s just cringe when you’re getting to know someone — there
is nothing cringier than a first date. And you’re having a in this
new environment where you’re trying to work out who you are and where
you function. So I guess that’s why it might feel a bit stilted at
the beginning. But it always gets there.
Is there anyone this season that you really loved talking about?
I don’t know if it’s just the UK “Love Island,” but there’s a
big thing where you’d introduce yourself as where you’re from, your
name and what you do for a living. Whereas in America, it seems, they
care more about where they’re from, like if they’re a Southerner or
cowgirl, which is not as good for puns and gags. Anyone that’s got a
funny job — if there’s a cowboy on the show, I’m absolutely
delighted about it. Elevator salesperson, I’ll take that. (CNN:
Stirling got both this season with and elevator saleswoman Olandria.)
So in the beginning, that’s the only prep we do for the show, really.
Before it starts, we’ll just get everyone’s jobs and write as many
jokes as we can about their jobs as possible.
You’ve done so many seasons of the show. What are the qualities that
make someone good TV?
A good “Love Island” contestant is the same as a great sitcom star.
The best sitcom characters in the world have got a fatal flaw. Every
sitcom ends once that character realizes their fatal flaw. So all the
best “Love Island” contestants have got this fatal flaw — it’s
annoying to watch them f**k up again. But after you’ve watched them
do it a few times, instead of being annoyed with them, you go, “Oh, I
have literally done that.” You start to see yourself in them.
. At the start, I think people struggled to warm to her. And then when
they got that she really meant well, but she had this intensity, I
think lots of people, but particularly women, started to go, “Oh my
God, I’ve been Huda.” That’s why people start to love her.
We’ve all done that, just not on one of the most-watched shows in
America.
And then, if you’re Amaya and you have this genuinely comic genius
ability to say words wrong — like, I could sit in a room with
professional writers for a year and not come up with her phrases.
She’s great TV. Are you sick of this yet?
It would be disingenuous to be like, “I love it every year.” It
comes and goes. But the last two or three years have just been such
highs. It has been hard at points, but overall, it’s changed my life.
And now I love reality television. I didn’t watch reality television
other than this. And now I love the “Housewives.” I love “Selling
Sunset.”
You’re watching more of it than anyone now.
But I don’t really watch “Love Island.” It’s a great job to
have, but I’m not watching it in a purely recreational, fun way. It
does take away, if you’re watching a really dramatic bit, and I’m
trying to see if there’s any insects in the background that I can
pretend are my pet.
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