Iain Stirling looks back: ‘I was worried about doing the Love Island voiceover, but it opened doors I thought would close’

The comedian on being a weird emo teen, the audition he didn’t show up for and why he was jealous of Rob Beckett Born in Edinburgh in 1988, Iain Stirling is a comedian, actor and writer. He studied law at the University of Edinburgh while starting his standup career. He won a children’s Bafta for his work on CBBC alongside sidekick puppet Hacker T Dog and has narrated UK Love Island since 2015 and Love Island USA since 2022. He co-wrote and starred in the sitcom Buffering, and currently hosts true crime podcast Murder They Wrote with his wife Laura Whitmore with whom he has two children. Series two of Iain Stirling’s Roast the Internet will return to Comedy Central on 7 September. This must have been taken at the weekend as I’m wearing a Blink-182 T-shirt and baggy jeans. I wouldn’t have been allowed to look like that during the week. I lived this double life in my teens: I wore an outfit like this at school once and was told I was a “sweatie” – an emo – and that I’d let the school down. I was on the football team and things were tribal back then. But on a Saturday, when I was back from violin practice, I could dress how I wanted. Under the bed is an empty