Perhaps best known as the voice of Love Island, Scottish comic Iain Stirling has become a fan favourite on the dating show thanks to elongated vowels and brassy commentary.
Aside from playfully narrating the 'end of the day' actions of bikini-clad contestants, Stirling has built a varied career for himself, with years of stand-up, podcasting, acting, and TV presenting behind him.
Recently, though, an unexpected string was added to his bow, when the 35-year-old started filming TikTok dances alongside his wife, Irish TV presenter Laura Whitmore.
"We do dancing! In lockdown, we made five or six dances over the course of two years being locked in a house. I sort of got released from lockdown and people were coming up to me in the streets saying, 'I love those dances you do with Laura', so we still do them now and again."
"We do it quite a lot in our personal lives," he adds, having recently made it to the Instagram stories of Samantha Barry.
The Glamour editor in chief posted an adorable video of the couple taking a spin around the dancefloor, which Stirling says is a pretty accurate representation of the two on a night out.
"We like dancing," he smiles. "Laura did Strictly [Come Dancing], and she loves her dancing, so we've done a few lessons back in the day. It's a nice thing to do for our anniversary or whatever. So, yeah, it's mad that that's a thing that people know me for. I do dancing on the internet, shamelessly."
As well as taking part in some TikTok trends, and having both worked on previous seasons of Love Island (Laura took up the mantle of presenter from 2020–2022), and having appeared on episodes of Celebrity Gogglebox together, the couple now have a true crime podcast called Murder They Wrote.
"We love doing the podcast because we genuinely love true crime, and we always wanted to work together but, in the modern era, it's so hard to hold onto your privacy while doing that. True crime felt like a really great way to talk about something we're both really passionate about."
"We love doing it and people seem to really like it, I just genuinely didn't know how popular true crime is. I thought we were sort of dead unique in liking true crime, but it turns out loads of people do," he smiles. "But we've had so much fun doing it, we're delighted."
Despite both having careers in the spotlight, the couple are famously private, keeping the details of their family life under wraps.
When it comes to stand-up, though, it seems that some details will inevitably slip through.
"I've been a stand-up for 15 years, and you can't be a stand-up without talking about your life," he insists. "It's sort of an occupational hazard. For me, when it comes to talking about things, like my family, it's more to do with doing it at a pace that I feel comfortable with."
"I think that's a universal trait, it's just amplified because of what we do for a living," he adds.
"I've always talked about myself with stand-up because I'm too stupid to talk about anything else," he jokes. "I don't know enough about anything else so I just talk about me, I guess."
In 2024, Stirling will bring his new show, Relevant, to Dublin's Vicar Street, where he will speak about his role in the world.
"I've become a dad recently," he says, having welcomed daughter, Stevie, in March 2021. "So, what is my role in the house nowadays? And like, this new world of TikTok and Instagram, and everyone has an attention span of six seconds - it's all really interested me.
"Being a dad in your 30s, and working on Love Island, I feel like I've become this gateway between two generations," he smiles. "It's a cynical look at the modern world, really. It's the sort of show I'd love someone to bring their teenager too; they'll get loads of references."
"It's where I sit in the world right now," he surmises. "I think it's a big thing at the minute where we all sort of worry. Are we relevant? What are we doing here?"
Iain Stirling will bring Relevant to Dublin's Vicar Street on Saturday, 30 March, 2024.
