NEED TO KNOW
- Connor Storrie opened up about leaving his old and now-viral YouTube videos from when he was a preteen online in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE
- “It felt like the end of a sort of self-acceptance ritual,” the actor said
- Storrie was thrust into the international spotlight in late 2025 for his role as hockey player Ilya Rozanov in Heated Rivalry
Connor Storrie says leaving old — and now-viral — YouTube videos of himself online was a conscious choice.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the actor, 25, said he opted to leave clips that are over a decade old on the platform amid his newfound fame and success from Heated Rivalry as a form of “self-acceptance.”
“It’s weird to see them going viral, [but] actually, it was a choice to leave them up,” Storrie said at the 32nd Annual Actors Awards, presented by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), on Jan. 7.
“I didn’t have access to them,” he continued. “A fan reached out and was like, ‘Hey, I know someone at YouTube who can help get them down,’ and I went through the whole process, but honestly, it felt like the end of a sort of self-acceptance ritual.”
“I think when you’re like 12 years old, you kind of look at that, and you’re like, ‘Oh, cringe, I don’t want to see it,’ but I don’t know. It felt cool to be like, ‘Yep, that was me, and this is me now,’ ” he added. “And it feels cool to accept that.”
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Storrie was thrust into the international spotlight in late 2025 for his role as hockey player Ilya Rozanov in Heated Rivalry, based on the novel of the same name by Rachel Reid.
He initially started his acting career in 2018, appearing in various short films and minor roles, including one in 2023’s Riley, as well 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux, in which he played a young Arkham Asylum inmate who was implied to be the “real” Joker.
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In one of his YouTube videos from 2012, Storrie — who has written and directed multiple short films — can be seen introducing himself.
Another sees the actor discussing Katy Perry‘s “Firework,” poking fun at some of the lyrics in the pop star’s hit.
Sabrina Lantos
After Storrie became an overnight sensation alongside his Heated Rivalry costar Hudson Williams, the actor told Interview Magazine that his life has been busy nonstop.
“It’s been go, go, go, go, go,” he explained to the outlet. “Luckily for me, I love hard work. I love having a full schedule.”
As for the overall fanfare surrounding Heated Rivalry — which follows two competing professional hockey players who become involved in a secret romance — Storrie said, “All of this has been so cool. It’s been shocking because I’m a nihilist when it comes to how I think things are going to be received. 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. It’d be a really beautiful moment for fans of the books, but it has since transcended that,” he continued. “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.”
All six episodes of Heated Rivalry are available to stream now on HBO Max.
