The 24-Year-Old Who Became Saint Laurent Ambassador After 20 Seconds of Nodding

In Saint Laurent's Fall 2026 campaign alongside Rosé and Liu Wen, the name people searched for most was Connor Storrie. The American actor, born in 2000, played Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov in the HBO Max series Heated Rivalry last December. In the campaign video shot by Talia Chetrit, he does nothing but nod for twenty seconds to Milli Vanilli's "I'm Gonna Miss You," wearing sunglasses. Yet those twenty seconds capture his entire 2025.

Connor Storrie grew up as a gymnast in Texas. Just a year ago, he was an unnamed inmate in Joker: Folie à Deux. But as Heated Rivalry drew nine million viewers, everything changed. He learned Russian from scratch for the role and built a hockey player's physique. The series became a hit, and in February this year, he was named a Saint Laurent global ambassador.

The pace only accelerated from there. He earned an Emmy nomination, attended his first Met Gala, and in August became the face of Saint Laurent's first solo campaign. In front of Talia Chetrit's lens, he says nothing, only nods. Twenty seconds of staring into the camera from behind sunglasses, moving to the rhythm. That brief moment compresses the past year of his life.

What can you say in twenty seconds?