Love Island: Who is Iain Stirling, the voice of the ITV2 dating show?

Love Island is back, bringing with it its three irresistible ingredients: Sun, Sex and Stirling.

Yes, ITV2’s reality dating show just wouldn’t be the same without the wisecracking narration of Iain Stirling, whose funny one-liners and entertaining observations are as much as part of the programme as the contestants’ attempts to find love and scoop the big-money prize.

The sardonic Scot has provided the voiceover for Love Island since 2015, making this his seventh series behind the mic.

And not only has the show made him a household name, it has also seen him become part of the programme’s most successful relationship – Stirling and presenter Laura Whitmore married in secret in 2020 and in April 2021 welcomed a daughter into the world.

Find out more about the man who has become the voice of Love Island.

Who is Iain Stirling?

Iain Andrew Stirling is a Scottish comedian, writer and television presenter from Edinburgh. He began doing stand-up during his final year studying Law at the University of Edinburgh and has been a regular on the British stand-up circuit for over a decade.

In August 2009, Iain performed in the final of the Chortle Student Comedian of The Year at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, finishing runner-up to winner Joe Lycett. In October 2012, he toured with Russell Kane as a warm-up act.

What else has Iain Stirling been in?

Stirling has worked on a number of CBBC shows including Scoop, Help! My Supply Teacher's Magic and 12 Again, and won a Bafta in 2016 for Best Children's Presenter for hosting the comedy quiz programme The Dog Ate My Homework.

Away from children’s TV, Stirling has appeared in Comedy Central series Stand Up Central and Drunk History, and as a TV and film reporter on ITV's weekend morning show Weekend. He has also presented celebrity game show CelebAbility on ITV2, and has appeared on the channel’s Stand Up Sketch Show.

In 2019, Stirling finished runner-up in the eighth series of Taskmaster and in November 2020, he appeared on Loose Women as part of the daytime talk show’s first ever all-male panel.

Stirling is a published author – in 2018 his book Not Ready To Adult Yet looked back at his journey to adulthood to explore whether millennials are self-obsessed, work-shy, mollycoddled, egomaniacs, or just a misunderstood generation with a crippling fear of failure.

He also played for the victorious Rest of the World side at Manchester United’s Old Trafford in the 2020 Soccer Aid charity football match.

As well as hearing him on Love Island, fans can expect to see more of Stirling later this summer. CelebAbility is currently in the middle of its fifth series on ITV2, and his first sitcom, Buffering, will air on the channel in August.

The semi-autobiographical show, written by Stirling and fellow stand-up Steve Bugeja, follows the fortunes of children’s TV presenter Iain as he navigates the challenges of work and relationships with twenty-something housemates. It is expected to begin on ITV2 on August 5.

Does Stirling go to Mallorca for Love Island? 

Even though we never see his face on Love Island, just like the contestants, crew and on-screen presenter Laura Whitmore, Stirling also gets to spend a couple of months in the Spanish sun.

While Love Island is on air, Stirling starts work at 2pm every day and watches an edited version of the show — which is almost always what audiences will be watching that evening. “I show up, watch the show, think of some funny things to say and then speak over people having sex with each other,” he told The Sun in 2016.

“I’m the Instagram generation’s David Attenborough,” he joked to the Evening Standard in 2018. “It is animals in their natural environment here, isn’t it? So you could say, I just work with a different species to David.”

Are Iain Stirling and Laura Whitmore married?

Appropriately, perhaps, Love Island narrator Iain Stirling and presenter Laura Whitmore are a couple themselves. The two are believed to have met at an ITV party in 2016 before starting a relationship in 2017, keeping it under wraps for six months, when they started sharing snaps of their romance on Instagram.

Laura replaced Caroline Flack as host of the sixth series of Love Island – set in South Africa – in January 2020. When her appointment was announced, she said:

"The Love Island team are the best in the business… including the voice and heart of the show, Iain. He thought he was getting a holiday away from me...not a chance."

Iain, meanwhile, added, "The new #loveisland host seems nice. I wonder if she’s single..."

Later that year the couple married in secret at a ceremony in Dublin in Laura’s native Ireland, and in December she revealed that she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. 

Their daughter, Stevie, was born in March 2021 and recently took her first flight, Laura taking to Instagram to share a snap of her and - hidden behind a pair of passports - her baby girl as they boarded the flight to Mallorca ahead of Love Island.

The pair have also cemented their status as a TV golden couple by appearing on Celebrity Gogglebox.