Love Island's Kaylor Martin discusses the show, viral fame, and her local roots

In case you haven’t heard, hometown girl Kaylor Martin appeared on the latest season of Love Island U.S.A., entering the villa on day one. Since her stint on the show, Martin, 22, has navigated drama unlike anything she’s ever seen.

For those unfamiliar, Love Island is currently the number-one reality series in the U.S. across all streaming platforms. The show is based on the U.K. series of the same name and follows cast members (aka “islanders”) who couple up to compete in games and challenges. Martin’s season of Love Island was the sixth in the U.S. franchise.

During the time on the island in a Barbie Dreamhouse-like mansion, temptations arise (bring on the “bombshells!”) and drama unfolds. Viewers can vote on who gets to stay and keep trying to find love or who must leave the villa. The winning couple gets a $100,000 cash prize. The show is the kind of reality show that’s so bad it’s good.

Martin, a Connellsville native, found her way onto the show the organic way, whereas many of her fellow islanders were contacted to be on the show.

“I was in my bedroom with my best friends when I came across the application,” Martin tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “I was like, ‘should I fill out this application?’ and they’re like, ‘yeah, do it.”

The application was 100 questions and what Martin called “deep, open-ended questions.” She ended up filling it out but lost her answers when her ex-boyfriend called her.

“My girlfriends and I went for a drink at Applebee’s, and my best friend looks over and asked what I was doing,” Martin says. She redid her application at the Applebee’s and was soon met with callbacks and interviews, eventually making her way onto Love Island.

Just before she headed to film in Fiji, Martin got her undergraduate degree in psychology. It was difficult to navigate six classes while simultaneously applying for the show, which she mentions had a lot of paperwork. She was also working three jobs.

“It was just a lot at one time,” Martin says. “Somehow I graduated on the dean’s list and managed to keep all my jobs and make it on Love Island.”

A unique aspect of Love Island is that it’s filmed and released nearly in real time.

“What you’re seeing is actually what’s happening two days before you guys get to see it,” Martin says. When we spoke Aug. 1, Martin and her boyfriend and fellow contestant Aaron Evans (she confirmed the two were still together, taking things slow and trying long distance) had left the villa two weeks prior, two episodes before the finale.

Like every reality show, there was of course drama. In the villa, Martin says it feels like “your own little la la land, and you forget that the outside world actually exists.”

“You know you’re being filmed, but it’s literally how you act, like you forget after a week being there that you’re being filmed and everything you’re saying is being broadcast to the entire, like USA,” Martin adds. “I just started watching the show back, and I’m cringing at all my crying moments and wanting to hide under my bed for embarrassment of myself.”

Luckily, Martin has a strong support system with her family and friends and is glad to be home.

“In the real world, if I get in an argument with my boyfriend, I can just go out with my girlfriends for a drink and get away from that situation, but in the village, you’re living together and seeing that person every day and just have to deal with it and the emotions involved as well,” Martin says.

A particular moment of Martin’s has gone viral, the “FAWK Aaron!” phrase she uttered during a fight with her current boyfriend Evans. Many TikToks have been created using her voice (check out this one from the singer Latto’s account) and there are even “Fawk Aaron!” cookies popping up.

Speaking of “fawk,” Martin mentioned that her fellow islanders would remark that she had a little bit of an accent.

“I don’t know if it’s a Pittsburgh accent, or if it’s a Connellsville accent, but people would be like, you have a bit of a country accent, but it’s not country,” Martin says. “Like, whenever I’d say ‘noooh’ or my ‘phohhhne,’ just my vowels.”

Martin would tell her fellow islanders Pittsburgh-specific things, mentioning that she was surprised not a lot of people knew what pierogis are, and not everyone has cookie tables at their wedding.

“I’m really excited to bring some islanders to Pittsburgh and show them around, maybe go to a Steelers game and tailgate,” she says. A favorite place to visit in town is CAVO Nightclub on Smallman Street.

While at the villa, Martin also missed chain restaurants, noting how much she enjoys Texas Roadhouse rolls with cinnamon butter.

As far as what’s next, Martin has a master’s degree on her list as her “main priority.” Martin was originally supposed to return to school for her master’s in applied behavior analysis in the fall, but since her summer was what she called “a little crazy,” she plans to return in the winter, or when the Love Islandbuzz dies down a bit.

“We’ll see what happens with all the social media stuff, I don’t know how to go about it at all,” she says. “I’m a small-town girl from Connellsville. I have no idea how this shit works; I’m just going with the flow.”