Now that hot hockey romance Heated Rivalry has made Connor & Storrie & Hudson Williams household names (at least in all the households of the girls & gays we know!), everyone’s clamoring to know more about the series’ breakout stars.

When they were first cast in Canadian streamer Crave’s adaptation of author Rachel Reid’s book of the same name, it’s not that they were completely plucked out of obscurity, but the young actors didn’t exactly have a ton of projects under their belts that were widely seen.

So, needless to say, Heated Rivalry has exposed Storrie & Williams to a massive new audience—and, no, we’re not just talking about baring their bums. For example, they both have their own Wikipedia pages now! And, per Out, both stars had around 10k follows on the Instagram when the series’ first trailer dropped… two months & three episodes later, they both have just under 300k! Talk about skyrocketing to stardom!

So, as our gay little world collectively gets to know the pair, we’ve been surprised to learn some fun facts about who they were before the show. Like, did you know Storrie actually has a small but crucial role in 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux?

Yup, the much-maligned supervillain sequel features a climactic scene in which its insinuated that Storrie’s character—a fellow inmate of Arthur Fleck’s (Joaquin Phoenix) at Arkham Asylum—is actually the “real” Joker from the Batman comics, whatever that means. Of course, the movie was such a critical & box office dud that we don’t really expect to hear much about that storyline ever again, but still!

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Heated Rivalry: Hudson Williams & Connor Storrie on how they avoided “boring” sex

The stars & creator of the steamy new series on why it has audiences hooked: “It feels closer to real sex because it’s human and it’s about watching two people really figure each other out.”

People also seem pretty gagged by the fact that, despite his convincing performance as Russian athlete Ilya Rozanov, Storrie isn’t Russian at all! In fact, he’s a Texas boy, born in Odessa in 2000 where he trained as a gymnast for years before moving to los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

But perhaps most surprising of all? Before he beefed up to play a hockey star, Connor Storrie had a long-haired, septum-pierced twink era!

Yeah, turns out our Ilya might just be a “long last Hadid sister”—at least according to a viral X post from user @girIsixxx who notes that, especially with the longer locks, Storrie sort of resembles the famous model siblings, Gigi and Bella Hadid!

“He was at the precipice of picking up the wig or the weights here,” another user jokes, referencing an internet-speak meme about that crucial time in every twink’s life. Clearly, the weights won out here. And while the curls are still apparent even in the shorter cut he rocks to play Ilya, is anyone else missing those gorgeous long locks?

As for that model-quality face he’s serving, it’s no accident: Storrie appears to have posed for a number of fashion & editorial photoshoots over the years, much of which is being recirculated on social media in light of everyone’s Heated Rivalry obsession. And some of it Storrie’s even been sharing himself:

Fans have also been delighted to discover that, while Storrie was in his so-called “twink” mode, he starred in another drama about a closeted athlete: The 2023 coming-of-age indie Riley.

From emerging director Benjamin Howard, that films follow high school football star Dakota Riley (Jake Holley) as he struggles to come to terms with his burgeoning sexuality in small-town America. Storrie has a supporting role as a friendly classmate named Liam who he grows close with, and who just might help him accept his true self.

Flamboyant and feminine (and making great use of that long hair), Liam couldn’t feel more different from Ilya—well, aside from the fact that they’re both pretty flirty people—and comparing the two roles makes it quite clear what an incredible actor Storrie is, making these two characters from completely different worlds feel authentic and real.

This fan edit (hilariously set to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”) only highlights Storrie’s ability to transform from role to role even further:

So, if Heated Rivalry has you curious about checking out more from Connor Storrie, we highly recommend watching Riley which is quite a compelling film in its own right and offers a nice flashback to the actor’s twink era from his not-too-distant past.

Riley is currently streaming on Here TV, and is available for digital rental or purchase via Amazon Prime Video. New episodes of Heated Rivalry air weekly on HBO Max and stream simultaneously on Crave in Canada.