March 2026 Oscar Prediction: Connor Storrie Will Win an Oscar before 2030

Connor Storrie has the craft, the charisma, and the Cary Grant factor. Here’s why this rising actor is headed straight for Oscar gold.

Here’s my long-game prediction: Connor Storrie takes home a Best Actor Oscar before 2030, and earns a directing nomination within his lifetime. I’m writing this down now so I can say I told you so.

Let’s start with a detail about his dedication to his craft. Storrie spent three weeks in four-hour daily sessions learning Russian for Heated Rivalry. Fast forward to now and Russian viewers have praised the accent from someone with zero Slavic heritage. On top of that, he spent his junior year in France and became genuinely proficient in French. The man is a linguistic beast. I try not to judge an actor on accents alone, but when native speakers are moved by a heart-tearing monologue in a Moscow tunnel, you know you got someone special saying the words. 

Then there’s the Joker: Folie à Deux factor. He sent in one self-tape, showed up to set with no script, and, moments before filming, Todd Phillips pulled him aside to reveal that his character was the real Joker of the universe. And everyone who saw that: Saw. It. For seconds of screen time, Storrie left a mark. 

And Heated Rivalry? It made millions cry on repeat. TikTok has blown up with critiques of every moment in this show, as if we’re all getting a PhD in happy endings (pun intended) and half the world has chosen Heated Rivalry for their dissertation. Both actors deserve praise, but I’ll tell you soon why I’m predicting Connor Storrie for Oscar gold.

Let’s mention Saturday Night Live, too. He hosted that show as if his career depended on it. As an intermittent fan of the show, I can assure all of us that being good in sketch comedy is not important. But not only was he good, he pitched his own sketch. And I might be starry-eyed here, but I think it was the best one that night.

And here’s what seals it: the public persona. Even in the middle of junket chaos, Storrie is a gracious presence from his spot on a late-night couch to standing with his co-star in a Teen Vogue Q&A. And he’s been literally thrown into the spotlight. Eight months after waiting tables, he’s at SAG-AFTRA headquarters announcing nominees, cracking a line about reading specials vs. reading nominations. He’s self-aware without being precious, charming without being manufactured. This is so important for the film he ends up promoting and for the Oscar campaign he does with the film lucky enough to have him.

There are of course, comparisons to current A-list actors but I want to compare him to someone further back. Connor Storrie has the old Hollywood charisma. Like Cary Grant. Not the looks (okay, yes, the looks), but also the art. Grant was a man who could be in a screwball comedy and a Hitchcock thriller and be equally, awe-inspiringly watchable. This is Storrie’s gift as well. 

Okay, I hear you. Grant never won an Oscar. The Academy gave him an Honorary Award in 1970, decades after his best work. The Academy should have given him one. With Storrie, I’m betting they won’t make the same mistake twice.

Storrie’s raw, almost boyish, charisma and adaptable spark from Paris fashion shows to low-budget sets (check out what the fandom unearthed on YouTube!) feels increasingly rare in an era of algorithmic celebrity. That’s the Cary Grant thing. It can’t be manufactured. It either exists or it doesn’t. Us oldies call it “it factor.”

He’s also already writing and directing his own feature, Transaction Planet, about an alien struggling to live on Earth. The directorial ambition is already in motion.

Hudson Williams is extraordinary. I adore him and I could write poetry as an Asian American watching another mixed-Asian succeed on this level. The representation makes my heart explode. But Storrie has my daring prediction. He’s Oscar magic.