Connor Storrie: His biggest roles before ‘Heated Rivalry’

Connor Storrie’s path to Ilya Rozanov on “Heated Rivalry” runs through a short list of credits that quietly stacked the deck in his favor. Three of those roles, spread across one horror feature, one Hulu pilot, and two 2023-2024 stand-outs, gave casting directors the exact mix of indie grit and studio polish they needed before handing him a lead on an international hit. The timing matters now because new viewers are hunting his résumé before the show’s second season drops.

Texas roots and early hustle

Storrie was born in Odessa and raised between there and Colorado. He moved to Los Angeles at eighteen and kept the lights on by waiting tables while he took Groundlings classes and shot micro-budget shorts on weekends.

Those short films—titles like “Watch and Guide” and “The Internet Kills”—kept his reel alive through 2022. They also taught him how to hit emotional beats in three-minute bursts, a skill that later impressed “Heated Rivalry” producers looking for fast chemistry reads.

The same year he landed a part in the low-budget slasher “Headless Horseman,” playing a small-town kid named Tom. It was hardly awards bait, but it marked his first on-screen death scene and added horror footage to a résumé that had been mostly drama exercises.

One day on a Hulu set

In early 2023 Storrie booked a single episode of “Tiny Beautiful Things.” He shows up as the Shitty Apartment Guy, a walk-on who shares maybe ninety seconds of screen time with Kathryn Hahn.

The credit still counts because it proved he could hold focus next to an established lead and deliver a line without stealing focus. For agents, that Hulu badge opened doors that shorts alone never could.

Storrie filmed the scene between restaurant shifts, then went back to serving brunch the next morning. Two months later he got the call for his first feature lead.

Riley and festival firsts

Benjamin Howard’s coming-of-age drama “Riley” gave Storrie his initial narrative showcase as Liam Hauser. The film toured the circuit, landed on several year-end lists, and generated the earliest batch of fan edits that resurfaced after “Heated Rivalry” premiered.

Long-haired and soft-spoken, Liam offered a sharp contrast to the cocky Russian goalie audiences would meet later. Clips of the diner scene have racked up millions of views on TikTok, turning a limited-release title into a stealth résumé highlight.

Critics noted the newcomer’s restraint; Howard told one festival Q&A that Storrie improvised the final monologue after the scripted version felt flat. That uncredited polish helped convince Todd Phillips’s team to bring him in for a much larger production.

Keeping a secret in Arkham

Storrie spent most of 2022 on the Warner backlot playing a nameless Arkham inmate in “Joker: Folie à Deux.” His single scene, opposite Joaquin Phoenix, was shot on the final day of principal photography and kept under wraps until release.

Playing the inmate who ultimately attacks Arthur Fleck gave him a marquee credit without a marketing obligation. It also earned him his SAG card, a threshold many young actors chase for years.

When the film finally opened, viewers who recognized him from “Riley” started connecting the dots. The leap from indie festival circuit to DC blockbuster signaled that casting directors were already thinking of Storrie as a utility player who could slot into any tone.

Building the reel between jobs

Between those larger bookings, Storrie kept adding shorts. “A Letter on Loss” and “Twenty-Two” let him test accents and physical bits that later fed into Ilya’s Russian cadence and skating posture.

He has said the improv background helped him stay loose during chemistry reads for “Heated Rivalry,” where the producers needed instant rapport between the two leads. The same looseness shows up in the blooper reels that dropped last month on the show’s official YouTube channel.

Those off-the-cuff skills also positioned him for the 2026 “SNL” hosting gig now rumored in the trades. A résumé that mixes one studio cameo with a buzzy indie feature and a prestige series looks balanced on paper and on a late-night cue card.

Industry math behind the casting

By fall 2024 the “Heated Rivalry” producers had seen hundreds of tapes. What set Storrie apart was a combination of recent theatrical exposure from “Joker,” festival goodwill from “Riley,” and the small-screen credit on Hulu that proved he understood serialized pacing.

His age—he turned twenty-five during filming—matched the target demographic, and his willingness to learn skating and master a Russian accent removed two major production headaches.

Agents close to the deal note that the secrecy clause on “Joker” also signaled discretion, a valued trait when marketing a queer romance series in markets where the subject matter remains sensitive.

Online footprint and timing

Once “Heated Rivalry” hit, older clips of Storrie circulated without context. Fans splicing his “Riley” diner monologue with Ilya’s post-game interviews created a de-facto supercut that the show’s social team eventually embraced.

The surge renewed interest in “Tiny Beautiful Things,” pushing the pilot back into Hulu’s trending row for a weekend. It also drove a bump in “Headless Horseman” streams, proving that even the earliest credits can monetize when the lead actor breaks out.

Storrie has kept his personal Instagram sparse, but the official show account posted a side-by-side of his 2019 short-film haircut and the bleached crop he sports as Ilya, underlining the transformation for new viewers.

Preparation habits that carried over

Storrie prepared for “Riley” by living in his car for a week to approximate Liam’s transient life. The same immersive streak appeared when he spent six weeks on the ice before “Heated Rivalry” cameras rolled.

Language coaches noted his quick pickup of Russian consonant clusters, a skill traceable to the clowning drills that trained his ear at the Groundlings. Those habits keep him on short lists for roles that demand dialects or physical transformation.

Directors who have worked with him say he arrives with scene beats already mapped but stays open to last-minute pivots, a reputation that matters when schedules compress during awards season.

What the next eighteen months hold

Storrie is attached to an untitled indie heist script now in pre-production and has a supporting role in a limited series for FX due next summer. Both projects lean on the dramatic credibility he built with “Riley” and the name recognition that arrived with “Joker.”

His upcoming “SNL” gig will test whether the same actor who once served lattes can anchor ninety minutes of live sketch comedy. Early ticket sales suggest audiences are curious enough to find out.

The through-line remains consistent: each prior credit supplied a different piece of proof—indie drama, studio scale, small-screen stamina—that “Heated Rivalry” simply assembled into a lead. That assembly is what viewers are now tracing back through his filmography.

Where the résumé points next

Connor Storrie’s pre-breakout work shows a deliberate zigzag between mediums rather than a straight climb. The mix of horror quickie, Hulu walk-on, festival lead, and secret blockbuster cameo created a portfolio versatile enough to land a global queer romance lead. That same portfolio now positions him for projects that want proven range without the price tag of an A-lister, a calculation studios are making as budgets tighten. The next move will likely test whether the groundwork laid in those smaller rooms can sustain a career that stretches past the current hype cycle.