It’s game on for Connor Storrie at CAA.
The Heated Rivalry breakout has signed with the powerhouse agency for representation. The move comes as Storrie’s star is on fire thanks to the meteoric rise of Jacob Tierney’s hockey drama Heated Rivalry and his portrayal of the magnetic Russian Ilya Rozanov.
Inspired by the second installment of Rachel Reid’s beloved Game Changers book series and made by Canadian streamer Crave (acquired by HBO Max for the U.S. and Australia), Heated Rivalry casts Storrie as Rozanov opposite Hudson Williams’ Shane Hollander in the steamy yet heartfelt story of professional hockey phenoms and arch rivals whose lust turns to love over the course of a decade.
The six-episode series debuted Nov. 28, and by the time the finale aired on Christmas Day, it had become a certified smash buoyed by critical raves, a “truly joyful” press tour, frenzied online followings and eagle-eyed fans who analyzed every detail, line of dialogue, camera angle and song choice for inevitably viral clips on TikTok and Instagram not to mention loving reactions on Threads, X and more, which only seemed to reinforce what lovers of the book series had already known.
Glowing reviews, like one in the Seattle Times, praised Storrie’s Rozanov as a “pool of nuance, deeply vulnerable one moment and obnoxiously charming the next. (And you would never know Storrie was born in Texas instead of Russia — his accent is that good.) Williams’ Shane feels like he was lifted perfectly from the book, down to his neurotic need to fold his clothes before sex. Together, they’re a tour de force, completely mesmerizing in their dazzling chemistry.”
Then came a slew of interviews, podcast recordings and photo shoots that pushed both Storrie and Williams to north of one million Instagram followers. Storrie teamed with Williams for a GQ Hype cover and features in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Vulture, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly and more. (A digital The Hollywood Reporter investigated the show’s fandom.) Storrie went solo for widely shared outings with Interview, The Cut, Cultured and Behind the Blinds Magazine and more that displayed his versatile modeling talents in highly-styled spreads.
Through it all, Storrie and Williams have boasted about being best friends, and that bond continues with representation as they both signed with CAA. (Deadline first reported Williams signing in what can now be seen as a coup for CAA to rep both.) There’s been a fever online as fans speculate on how both actors will ride the wave of surprise superstardom to new projects beyond the rink of Heated Rivalry. It was recently reported that the show has already been picked up for a second season and that they’re both under contract for a total of three seasons.
They’re not completely new to this. Storrie’s first major role came via Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie á Deux in a chilling climatic scene opposite Joaquin Phoenix, and he’s been seen in April X and Tiny Beautiful Things. He’s got more work up his sleeve, too, as he recently wrote and directed a self-financed directorial debut called Transaction Planet. The film, which he’s called “super absurdist and bizarre” in the vein of John Waters meets Darren Aronofsky meets Sean Baker, follows an alien spirit that incarnates into a human body.
But if you ask him, he’s “very much in the beginning” stages of a white-hot career. “When I auditioned for Heated Rivalry, I was working at a restaurant. I was working at a restaurant 40 hours a week, getting off at 1 a.m. I did that on and off ever since I was in high school,” he recently told THR. “Really, honest to God, all I want going forward is to keep having opportunities to work and be on set and enjoy the people and the experiences along the way. It sounds so cheesy, and I was not of that mindset up until eight months ago, but it really is just about being inspired and being with cool people. I just feel so blessed to be doing the thing that I’ve always wanted to do with my life. How long that lasts, what that looks like, who I get to work with, the ups and the downs, I don’t know, but all I can do is be thankful for right now and hope that those fruits continue to grow.”
Those fruits will be growing with CAA and a team that includes management at Atlas Artists, the law firm Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich, Goodell & Gellman and Shelter PR for personal publicity. He’ll next be seen opposite Janelle James announcing SAG-AFTRA’s Actor Awards nominees on Wednesday morning.
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