NEED TO KNOW
To say Heated Rivalry has changed Connor Storrie’s life is quite the understatement.
Just eight months ago, the Texas-born actor’s life was completely different. “I was working at a restaurant, I worked at restaurants for eight years,” Storrie, 25, said on the Today show on Wednesday, Jan. 14.
In fact, he said, “The day that I found out that I had booked Heated Rivalry, I actually almost got fired from my restaurant.”
He said he “messed up a table so bad” and “got a horrible review” and had to own up to it in front of all the staff. “They read it at our pre-shift, they were like, ‘I need everyone to hear this, to know it’s not up to our standard.’ ”
Storrie got his “last warning” as a result of the review, which meant he was at risk of losing his job. “Then I looked down at my phone on my break, and I had a missed call, and I got it [the part].”
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Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max
Since the show — which was filmed in just over a month in mid-2025 — premiered, life for Storrie and his costar Hudson Williams has been “shocking,” Storrie told Interview Magazine in December 2025.
“All of this has been so cool,” he said. “There’s so many things that get made, and online we have access to so many opinions that I fully prepared myself before anything happened — I was fully prepared for nothing to really come of this.”
He knew the show would “be a really beautiful moment for fans of the books, but it has since transcended that,” Storrie said.
“Anything on top of that is a total blessing, cherry on top of the cake. And it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Courtesy Bell Media
The series, which was adapted from Rachel Reid’s book of the same name, follows rival hockey players Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Williams), as they navigate a years-long, secret love affair while competing against each other at the professional level.
It was renewed for a second season on Dec. 12, and Reid told PEOPLE, “I can’t tell you how much the love my characters have received over the years means to me.”
The author — who just announced a new book following Ilya and Shane, Unrivaled, will be released later this year — said she’s “really excited to have the chance to continue their story with Unrivaled.”
“It has been a blast writing these guys again, and revisiting the entire Game Changers cast.”
Heated Rivalry is now streaming on HBO Max
