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Before debuting, Heated Rivalry was already one of the hottest shows of the year, and now that the first two episodes are out on HBO Max in the U.S. and Crave in Canada, it is living up to the hype with fans — and then some.
Let’s take a look at the Canadian romantic sports drama series’ characters, as well as the actors who portray them. Get into our character and cast guide below.
Editor’s note: While the guide below doesn’t have any major spoilers for the Heated Rivalry series, it may have some minor spoilers about plot points of the Game Changers book series.
Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander
Williams plays one of our lead characters, Shane Hollander. In Heated Rivalry, Hollander is an ambitious rookie hockey player who leads the Montreal Meteors. It appears he is the golden child of the league and often feels the weight of living up to the expectations of both his family and the media. He approaches Ilya Rozanov and has interest in him, though it doesn’t seem to be initially sexual in nature, as Rozanov is the one who initially sparks that.
Like Hollander on the show, in real life, Williams is half-Asian on his mother’s side. At the beginning of Heated Rivalry, he is one of the top rookie players for the hockey league, along with Ilya Rozanov. The nuances of Hollander’s identity resonated with Williams.
“I think those were one of the first things I really connected to about Shane as a character, especially in Jacob [Tierney’s] scripts,” Williams told Yahoo! Canada. “It was fleshed out, and there’s a bunch of nuance. We’re not actively saying the thing, but the thing that we’re talking about is always there underneath the surface. Just putting that under everything that’s going on felt even relevant to me as a half-Asian actor. It felt like that part of Shane is a crossing of the Venn diagram of our similarities.”
This is the first major role for Williams. He’s previously appeared in episodes of Canadian and American television series such as Tracker, and also had a role in the Hallmark Mystery movie All I Need for Christmas.
Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov
Storrie plays the second of our two lead characters, Ilya Rozanov. Rozanov, despite being one of the top players in the league, has a lot of pressure from his family as well, as well as a father who he thinks is ailing. He is braggadocious and much more sure of himself than Hollander appears to be. Rozanov leads the Boston Raiders. Though he is the first to come onto Shane and appears much more comfortable when it comes to being romantic with a man, and is also bisexual, due to his own family’s distantness and Russia not being as receptive toward LGBT+ people, it brings his confidence down a bit.
Storrie is actually not Russian and has talked about the fake Russian accent that he developed for the show. In an interview with etalk, as reported by Just Jared, he spoke about the accent for the show. He said, “Honestly, I’ve always just thought Russian language and Russian culture was really cool. It’s so different from American culture, so it feels really exotic and out there from where I come from.”
This is also Storrie’s first major role. His previous roles include an episode of Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things, and he also played an inmate in the film Joker: Folie à Deux.
François Arnaud as Scott Hunter
Arnaud plays Scott Hunter, a teammate of Hollander’s. Fans of the book series will know that Scott Hunter is quietly a major player in the Game Changers universe. Scott Hunter is actually one of the main characters of the first book in the Game Changers series, aptly titled Game Changer. It is unknown how he’ll exactly play into the story this season, but it is expected that it will be sizable. Already, he has been mentioned prominently in the first two episodes, as he is staying in the hotel room next to Rozanov’s during one of his hookups with Hollander.
Christina Chang as Yuna Hollander
Chang plays Yuna Hollander, Shane Hollander’s mother and the wife of David Hollander. They love their son and are protective of him, but also expect so much of him and want him to succeed to his fullest potential, which puts a strain on many aspects of his personal and professional life.
Chang is one of the most veteran actors on the series, and starred on ABC’s The Good Doctor from its second season until its seventh and final season.
Dylan Walsh as David Hollander
Walsh plays David Hollander, Shane Hollander’s father and the husband of Yuna Hollander.
Like Chang, Walsh is also one of the most veteran actors on the series. He is most known for his lead role on FX’s Nip/Tuck, and has many other television credits, including recent stints on CBS’s Blue Bloods and The CW’s Superman & Lois. Also, like Chang, he happens to be an American actor on a Canadian television show.
Callan Potter as Hayden Pike
Potter plays Hayden Pike, one of Hollander’s closest friends in the hockey world and his teammate. He is married and has a wife named Jackie.
Potter is known for roles in series such as Nickelodeon’s The Other Kingdom and CBC/Netflix’s Workin’ Moms.
Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova as Svetlana Vetrova
Kharlamova plays Svetlana, one of Rozanov’s friends since childhood, and they appear to have an on-again, off-again relationship.
The actress recently had smaller roles in this year’s FX series Adults and the Disney+ movie A Very Jonas Christmas Movie. One of her more prominent roles was in the Global TV series Robyn Hood in 2023. She had a series regular role in that project.
Sophie Nélisse as Rose Landry
Nélisse plays Rose Landry, a key player in the book. While she hasn’t debuted in the show as of the first two episodes, you can see in the trailer that she will be a person who will pursue Shane romantically. And if you are familiar with the books, you know that she is important to Shane and Ilya’s story and their journey.
Nélisse is very familiar to international audiences as one of the leads of the hit Showtime series Yellowjackets. But with this role in Heated Rivalry, it is a fun reminder that the actress is French Canadian.
Robbie G.K. as Kip Grady
Robbie G.K. plays Kip Grady, one of the other main characters from the first novel in the series Game Changer. In the first two episodes, Kip does not make a prominent appearance in the series, but should be expected to soon.
G.K. starred in the Canadian series Utopia Falls, which was on Hulu and CBC Gem, and recently had a recurring role in Overcompensating on Prime Video.
Kolton Stewart as Carter Vaughn
Kolton Stewart plays Carter Vaughn, a hockey player who is friends with Hollander. In the novel, he has a romance with an actress similar to Rose and Hollander.
Of the younger cast members, he has some of the most extensive acting experience and television credits, including sizable roles in Netflix’s Locke & Key and, currently, Netflix’s My Life with the Walter Boys. He also had a role in the recently released Tubi film Sidelined 2: Intercepted.
Slavic Rogozine as Alexei Rozanov
Rogozine plays Alexei Rozanov, Ilya’s older brother. He seems to be dismissive and not that kind to Ilya, and asks him for money. He seems to have a girlfriend/wife and a child, which may point to the reason why he needs money. He also doesn’t seem to be as worried about their father’s health as Ilya is.
Rogozine has worked as a stunt double, aside from being an actor. On the acting front, he’s been in a couple of episodes of The Boys, among other things.
Yaroslav Poverlo as Grigori Rozanov
Poverlo plays Ilya’s father, Grigori, who seems to be going through some sort of memory or cognitive issues. He appears to have some sort of status in society and is hard on his son. It seems that they have a distant relationship, which probably impacts how Ilya moves throughout the world.
He’s had minor acting roles over the years, but has mostly served as a Russian dialect coach on many shows, including The Recruit, The Irrational, and Law & Order.
Franco Lo Presti as Cliff Marleau
Lo Presti plays Cliff Marleau, one of Rozanov’s teammates and one of the people viewers see him converse with the most in the hockey world.
Lo Presti’s roles include several TV projects like Great American Family’s Crossroad Springs and USA Network/Syfy’s Chucky.
