54 Facts About Riz Ahmed

Riz Ahmed has received several awards, including an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award with nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and two British Academy Film Awards.

Riz Ahmed had his break-out role in Nightcrawler, which led to roles in the 2016 big-budget films Jason Bourne and Rogue One.

For starring as a young man accused of murder in the HBO miniseries The Night Of, Riz Ahmed won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series, becoming the first Muslim and South Asian male to win an acting Emmy.

Riz Ahmed received another Emmy nomination in the same year for his guest role in Girls.

Riz Ahmed went on to play Carlton Drake in the superhero film Venom and a drummer who loses his hearing in the drama film Sound of Metal.

Riz Ahmed produced, co-wrote, and starred in Mogul Mowgli, which earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film.

Riz Ahmed was born on 1 December 1982 in Wembley, a suburb in the London Borough of Brent, to a British-Pakistani family of Muhajir background.

Riz Ahmed's parents moved to England from Karachi, Pakistan, during the 1970s.

Riz Ahmed's father is a shipping broker, and he is a descendant of Shah Muhammad Sulaiman, the first Muslim Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court during British colonial rule in India.

Riz Ahmed attended Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, through a scholarship programme.

Riz Ahmed graduated from Christ Church, Oxford University, with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Riz Ahmed experienced a culture shock at Oxford, nearly dropping out due to the isolating atmosphere.

Riz Ahmed later studied acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Riz Ahmed alleged that during questioning, police asked him whether he had become an actor to further the Islamic cause, questioned him on his views of the Iraq War, verbally abused him, and denied him access to a telephone.

Riz Ahmed then portrayed Riq in the five-part horror thriller Dead Set for E4 and Manesh Kunzru in ITV1's Wired in 2008.

Riz Ahmed featured in the title role of the 2009 independent film Shifty, directed by Eran Creevy.

Riz Ahmed plays a charismatic young drug dealer in the film which sees a life in the day of this character.

Riz Ahmed was nominated for Best Actor at the 2008 British Independent Film Awards.

Riz Ahmed had a supporting role in Neil Marshall's historical thriller Centurion.

In 2012, he starred as one of the leading roles in the London-based film Ill Manors, directed by Plan B Ahmed received his third British Independent Film Award nomination for Best Actor.

Riz Ahmed assumed the lead role in Mira Nair's adaptation of the best-selling novel by Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, alongside Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, and Liev Schreiber.

Riz Ahmed is known for his stage performances such as in the Asian Dub Foundation opera Gaddafi and a starring role as psychotic serial-killer-turned-born-again-Christian Lucius in the Lighthouse Theatre's acclaimed production of Stephen Adly Guirgis's Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train as well as in Shan Khan's Prayer Room.

Riz Ahmed received acclaim for his portrayal in the film and gained numerous awards nominations during awards season.

Riz Ahmed was one of seventy-five actors to audition for the role of Rick.

Riz Ahmed found that most of the people dealt with abandonment issues, and attempted to replicate this in Rick's abusive relationship with Lou.

In 2016, Riz Ahmed played the role of Nasir "Naz" Khan in the HBO miniseries The Night Of, and received universal praise for his performance, earning him Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

Riz Ahmed appeared in the final season of Girls, earning him another Emmy nomination.

At the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, Riz Ahmed won the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance in The Night Of, winning over Robert De Niro, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor, Geoffrey Rush and co-star John Turturro.

In 2017, it was rumoured that Riz Ahmed was to play Hamlet in a Netflix adaptation of the Shakespeare play, which Riz Ahmed later confirmed.

In 2018, Riz Ahmed starred in Venom in the dual role of Carlton Drake, the Life Foundation's leader experimenting on symbiotes, and Riot, a symbiote team leader allied with Drake who seeks to invade Earth.

Riz Ahmed explained that Drake is trying to save the future of humanity when he discovers the symbiote, with Fleischer adding that Drake has a positive goal but a "moral ambiguity" that leads to him testing his science on other people.

Riz Ahmed starred in the American drama film Sound of Metal, which was distributed by Amazon Studios and released in 2020, after having premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019.

Riz Ahmed is the first Muslim and Pakistani actor to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 2021, Riz Ahmed executive produced the animated documentary film Flee which made its international debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

In February 2021, Riz Ahmed was nominated and won in the best debut screenwriter category for the film Mogul Mowgli at the delayed British Independent Film Awards 2020.

In November 2021, Riz Ahmed was announced as a recipient of the Richard Harris Award, which is given to an actor or actress who has "contributed significantly to British films throughout their career".

Riz Ahmed is set to voice Ballister Boldheart in Nimona, which was scheduled for release in 2023 on Netflix.

Riz Ahmed has upcoming roles in the films Fingernails and Relay.

Riz Ahmed competed as Riz MC on JumpOff TV's "Spin the Mic" freestyle rap battle contest in 2006.

Riz Ahmed beat contestants Stig and Skilla Mic, before a controversial loss to contest winner Whatshisface; according to JumpOff TV, Riz was at a disadvantage due to racial double standards from the crowd.

Riz Ahmed went on to win Best MC at the 2006 Asian Music Awards.

Riz Ahmed released his second single in 2007, the garage rap song "People Like People".

Riz Ahmed was selected as a BBC Introducing artist in 2007, playing the Glastonbury Festival and the BBC Electric Proms.

Riz Ahmed opened the Meltdown Festival with Bristol-based trip-hop group Massive Attack at the Royal Festival Hall in 2008, and was appointed 'Emerging Artist in Residence' at the Southbank Centre in London.

Riz Ahmed played at the London Camp for Climate Action in August 2009.

On 1 December 2011, it was announced that Riz Ahmed MC had signed to Tru Thoughts, an independent label in Brighton.

Riz Ahmed was featured on the song "Immigrants " in The Hamilton Mixtape, which topped the Billboard 200 chart.

In 2018, Sadia Habib and Shaf Choudry, two researchers in the UK, were inspired by Riz Ahmed to determine a method to quantify the nature of Muslim representation in film and TV.

Riz Ahmed has spoken about the lack of accurate representation of Muslims in the arts, and often expresses these views on social media.

The Riz Ahmed Test has five parts which, according to the creators, serve to highlight and combat the stereotypes of Muslims found in characters in films and on TV:.

Riz Ahmed has been involved in raising awareness of the displacement of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, and raising funds for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

In 2013, Riz Ahmed provided journalist Hardeep Singh with a formal apology for a tweet he had published in which he called Singh a "bigot" and falsely accused him of attempted assault.

Riz Ahmed agreed to pay him substantial damages for libel and his legal costs.

In January 2021, Riz Ahmed revealed on the podcast Grounded with Louis Theroux that he had recently married.