Iona Bielby on Interviewing as an Art Form and Her New Social Series for Polyester

Make it stand out

Host, writer, editor, and all round content maven Iona Bielby does, by her own admission, wear all the hats. After starting her career as an interviewer over four years ago, she’s become known as not only the face of her Stargazer series - which sees her chatting with musicians with her signature air of chilled out wit - but as its writer, editor, commissioner, and talent wrangler too.

We’ve teamed up with Iona to release new episodes of her series Shooting Stars across Polyester socials over the coming weeks - with the first to come tomorrow! - so to celebrate, we caught up with her for a quick chat about how she learned her craft by following her passion, and getting into making content for all the right reasons.

Hey Iona! Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into presenting and making your own web series?

Like all good things, I fell into interviewing. In 2022 I worked in marketing at a tech startup. I was the only woman working at the company so I thought it would be funny if I started a Twitter series (RIP Twitter) where I roasted tech-bros. The founders of the company were a bit apprehensive but ultimately let me run with the idea. That series ran for 6 episodes and I managed to interview the industry's biggest tech-bros at the time. It had a really great reception and after seeing its impact, I knew I wanted to start my own series within an industry that was far more special to me: the music industry. I had tried to become an artist when I was 17 but couldn't really hack the mental toll it takes (I was told I had to "market my looks more" by some shady producer and called it quits shortly after to study art history at uni), but music has never left my brain, heart, soul, etc. Ultimately, I wanted to do 2 things: A) be the series I wish I could have aspired to be on when I was 17 and B) tell the stories of artists I thought were often underrated/overlooked in such a noisy media landscape.

Photo: Samuel Wilson

What's the most fun thing about being an interviewer? 

Interviewing is so exhilarating. I'm really in it for the art of it. The most fun thing about it is the sheer fact that it feels like you've been granted a golden ticket into someone's brain. Like what do you mean my literal job - that I have given myself - is to take a finite amount of time to connect with someone and then create a really beautiful portrait of their experiences to distribute? It's such an art and a science and you learn something new about the process every time. It's the most fun thing in the world.

What makes a good interview question? (Ironic that this is also an interview question…)

I think a good interview question is one that people are usually too afraid to ask. Balancing curiosity and invasiveness is quite tough sometimes, but a good interview question will make a guest feel comfortable enough to answer it, but an audience member think "oh wow I couldn't have asked that."

You're a multi-hyphenate - you write, present, edit all your own work. What's the best thing about this? 

I've never been called a multi-hyphenate so it feels quite nice that someone's recognised I do indeed wear all the hats. But I do kinda consider it all one big art form. I wouldn't be a good presenter if I didn't know how to edit. I wouldn't be a good editor if I didn't know how to write. So for me, doing everything is the best part in itself. I feel like I have very specific taste, so being able to have 100% control of all things, allows me to deliver that taste. It's a lot of work, and it would be easier to hand off editing or writing to someone else, but for me, doing everything is truly part of the art form of being an interviewer in today's landscape.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into making content and interviewing etc.? 

My biggest piece of advice is that you always need to know your "why". It's a very tough industry so you need to know why you're an interviewer when you need to push through little pay, sleepless nights editing, your favourite artists rejecting you, countless emails negotiating, etc. My harshest piece of advice: If you want to be an interviewer just to piggy back off of your guests' fame I would highly suggest finding another career.

What can we expect from this Polyester x Shooting Stars collab? 

So much fun. So much whimsy. So much magic. So many stars.

Thanks Iona! Keep your eyes peeled for Polyester x Shooting Stars, on Polyester socials from 15th April 2026 <3