Connor Storrie Biggest Roles Before ‘Heated Rivalry’—Click

Connor Storrie arrived on screens with a string of small but telling parts that quietly built toward his lead turn as Ilya Rozanov in the 2025 series Heated Rivalry. Audiences scrolling for context on the breakout star are finding a short but varied list of credits that show steady movement from indie sets to studio backlots. Those earlier jobs also explain why casting directors trusted him with a high-stakes romance that mixes hockey, rivalry, and queer longing.

Early credits shaped range

Storrie’s first documented screen work arrived in the 2020 indie White Terror, where he appeared as a background figure listed only as “Black figure.” The part was brief, yet it placed him on a feature set during the same stretch he was finishing gymnastics training and starting bodybuilding routines that later informed his physical prep for hockey scenes.

Two years later he earned a named role as Tom in the low-budget horror film Headless Horseman. The project leaned into genre tropes rather than awards ambitions, but it gave him a full character arc and the chance to test dramatic timing under tight schedules and limited resources.

By 2023 he booked his first substantial lead in the independent drama Riley, playing Liam Hauser. The film marked his move into features with dialogue weight and emotional beats, a step that positioned him for the larger auditions that followed.

Television widened reach

Also in 2023, Storrie landed a guest spot on the Hulu anthology Tiny Beautiful Things. Kathryn Hahn anchored the series, yet his episode offered a compact showcase of quiet intensity that streaming executives later referenced when Heated Rivalry casting began.

The Hulu credit mattered because it placed his name on a recognizable platform without demanding months of commitment. It also introduced him to writers’ rooms that value concise character work over flashy monologues, a skill set he carried into later auditions.

Industry chatter around that time noted how quickly he moved between indie sets and network-adjacent productions, a pattern that signaled both versatility and availability to casting directors juggling multiple calendars.

Studio door cracked open

His highest-profile pre-Heated Rivalry credit came in 2024 with Joker: Folie à Deux. Todd Phillips cast him as a young Arkham Asylum inmate in a brief but memorable cameo that required nearly two years of secrecy agreements.

Working opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga gave Storrie a front-row education in large-scale production logistics, from extended lockups to coordinated press blackouts. The experience also expanded his reel with footage that reached multiplex audiences worldwide.

While the role remained supporting, it shifted how agents positioned him for subsequent meetings, proving he could hold space in a tentpole without pulling focus from established stars.

Physical prep became signature

Storrie’s gymnastics background and later bodybuilding regimen surfaced repeatedly in early casting notes. Directors cited his ability to learn movement vocabularies quickly, whether mastering fight choreography or, later, skating drills for Heated Rivalry.

That physical fluency helped him stand out in Riley, where Liam Hauser required both emotional vulnerability and credible athletic presence. It also reassured producers that he could handle the training load attached to a hockey-centric series.

Colleagues from those sets recall him arriving early to run drills alone, a habit that translated directly into the on-ice chemistry viewers praised once Heated Rivalry premiered.

Accent work signaled commitment

Before Heated Rivalry, Storrie had already begun experimenting with regional dialects in smaller roles. The Russian accent demanded for Ilya Rozanov built on that foundation rather than starting from scratch.

Coaches who worked with him on Tiny Beautiful Things noted his ear for cadence and willingness to record multiple takes until inflection felt lived-in. That patience carried over when dialect coaches joined the Heated Rivalry writers’ room.

The continuity reassured showrunners that he would treat language as another layer of character rather than an obstacle, an approach that helped the series avoid the stilted delivery common in sports romances.

Quiet grind preceded buzz

Between 2018 and 2022 Storrie accumulated a mix of short films and one-line appearances that rarely surfaced on red carpets. Those jobs kept him in the union and inside casting databases even when public recognition stayed minimal.

Agents describe that period as typical rather than exceptional, yet the consistency separated him from peers who cycled out after a single uncredited day. The pattern also meant he arrived at Joker: Folie à Deux with enough set experience to navigate union rules without extra hand-holding.

That behind-the-scenes reliability became part of the narrative once Heated Rivalry clips went viral and fans began tracing his earlier credits on social platforms.

Media narrative shifted fast

Pre-release coverage of Joker: Folie à Deux mentioned Storrie only in aggregated cast lists. Within weeks of Heated Rivalry’s debut, the same outlets ran features framing those earlier appearances as deliberate stepping stones.

The pivot reflected broader industry interest in origin stories that emphasize persistence over overnight discovery. Storrie’s filmography lent itself to that framing because each credit carried visible progression in screen time and billing.

Publicists noted the shift required little coaching; journalists already had the timeline from IMDb and festival program notes, so the story wrote itself once the new series supplied the hook.

Platform strategy paid off

Balancing a studio tentpole with indie features and a Hulu guest spot created a varied sample that appealed to multiple buyer profiles. Heated Rivalry showrunners cited that range when explaining why they cast an actor still early in his feature career for a lead role.

Streaming algorithms later rewarded the decision by surfacing his older titles to viewers who finished the series and wanted more. The ripple effect turned previously obscure credits into discovery points rather than footnotes.

Producers tracking similar talent pipelines now reference Storrie’s path when discussing how to build recognizable faces without overspending on established names.

Next moves already tracked

With Heated Rivalry renewed and awards campaigns underway, earlier collaborators report fielding calls about potential reunions on both indie and studio projects. Storrie’s willingness to return to smaller sets remains an open question that agents are fielding carefully.

Industry observers expect the next year to clarify whether he leans toward prestige limited series or continues mixing scale, but the existing credits already demonstrate he can toggle between registers without losing momentum.

What remains clear is that the path to Ilya Rozanov ran through Arkham hallways, Hulu anthologies, and an indie drama named Riley, each stop adding a layer that audiences now recognize as essential to the performance they binged.

Trajectory continues upward

Connor Storrie’s pre-Heated Rivalry work illustrates how modest credits can accumulate into a launchpad when each role builds a distinct skill. Viewers who arrived via the hockey romance now have a compact map of that climb, and the map keeps expanding as new offers arrive.