LONDON THEATRE INTERVIEW: LAURA WHITMORE
Posted on 7 April 2025.
Posted in: Interviews with cast and creatives
Broadcaster, presenter, and media personality Laura Whitmore is used to being the one in the interviewer’s chair. “It’s weird being on this side,” she jokes in her gentle Irish lilt. “I’ll probably start asking you questions.”
Born in Dublin and married to the voice of Love Island Iain Stirling (with whom she shares one child), Whitmore has been grafting on screen since the age of 22 when she secured a gig with MTV. Since then, she has risen through the ranks on programmes such as This Morning, Strictly Come Dancing, and spin-off show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! NOW, but she really grabbed the nation’s attention when she joined her husband on Love Island as its presenter in 2020.
Three years after leaving the show, Whitmore is now spreading her theatrical wings, having made her West End debut in 2022 as Jenny in 2:22 A Ghost Story, following in the footsteps of Lily Allen and Giovanna Fletcher. Her next theatre project is John Donnelly’s new play Apex Predator, which opens in Whitmore’s stomping ground of north London at the Hampstead Theatre.
“I like genre-busting pieces,” she says of the play. “I like things that aren’t too safe and this isn’t safe. It’s a bit out there.” Whitmore stars as mysterious teacher Ana, who befriends Mia (played by Sophie Melville), the mum of a child at her school. With Mia’s life hanging by a thread as she struggles with becoming a mother for a second time, growing apart from her husband Joe, and supporting her son Alfie, she turns to Ana for a new and — in Whitmore’s words “unconventional” — way to take control of her life. Spoiler: it involves vampirism.
“As women we’re told you can’t go running at night because someone may attack you. Think of all the things you could do as a woman if we could take away fear and physical threat. That’s what Ana does. Yes, the play is supernatural, but John has created a sophisticated critique of how we all live.” Whitmore continues: “The vampires in Apex Predator are [transforming] for empowerment. It’s about survival.”
To read the full interview click the button below to visit London Theatre’s website.
Apex Predator plays on the Main Stage until 26 April.
