Riz Ahmed
Birthdate: Dec 1, 1982
Birthplace: Wembley, London, England, UK
Riz Ahmed (birthname: Rizwan Ahmed) is an acclaimed British-Pakistani actor who has also been a rap artist, writer, producer and short films filmmaker, and began his varied career in the lead role in co-director/writer/co-editor Michael Winterbottom’s superb drama, The Road to Guantanamo (2006), co-directed by Mat Whitecross, and with Farhad Harun, Afran Usman and Mark Holden, winning the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival where it premiered, before a release by Roadside Attractions.
Ahmed had his second consecutive starring role in his second feature, director-writer Eran Creevy’s British crime movie, Shifty (2008), with Daniel Mays, Jason Flemyng, Nitin Ganatra and Francesca Annis, and premiering at the London Film Festival, and then Ahmed was cast in director/writer Sally Potter’s fashion industry drama, Rage (2009), starring Jude Law, Steve Buscemi, Judi Dench, John Leguizamo, Dianne Wiest, Eddie Izzard, Bob Balaban and David Oyelowo, premiering in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.
Ahmed starred in director/co-writer Chris Morris’s acclaimed black comedy, Four Lions (2010), co-written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, co-starring Kayvan Novak, Nigel Lindsay, Arsher Ali and Adeel Akhtar, released by Drafthouse Films to rave reviews after its Sundance Film Festival premiere, followed by Ahmed appearing in roles in two poorly-received historical dramas--director/writer Neil Marshall’s Centurion (2010) and Black Gold (2011), directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and co-starring Tahar Rahim, Mark Strong, Antonio Banderas and Freida Pinto.
Ahmed, as co-star, reunited with director/writer/producer Michael Winterbottom for his third Thomas Hardy movie adaptation (based on Tess of the d’Urberville) and set in Mumbai, Trishna (2011), starring Freida Pinto, Anurag Kashyap, and Roshan Seth, and premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, and released by Artificial Eye.
Riz Ahmed starred in the ensemble of the British urban crime drama from director/writer Ben Drew (also a rap artist known as Plan B), Ill Manors (2012), co-starring Ed Skrein, Nick Sagar and Natalie Press, and then Ahmed starred in another contemporary drama about characters caught in the crossfire of the U.S. war on terror, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), co-starring Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland and Om Puri, under Mira Nair’s direction, but losing money for distributors IFC Films (U.S.) and PVR Pictures (India).
Ahmed co-starred in another terrorism drama, Closed Circuit (2013), with Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Ciaran Hinds and Jim Broadbent under John Crowley’s direction, and grossing over $6 million for Focus Features/Universal Pictures, followed by Ahmed appearing in one of his occasional American movies, director/writer Dan Gilroy’s bracing crime drama, Nightcrawler (2014), starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo and Bill Paxton, earning over $50 million (against $8.5 million costs) for Open Road Films after a Toronto Film Festival premiere, leading to an Oscar nomination for Gilroy’s original screenplay.
Ahmed had a supporting role in his first Hollywood studio movie, director/co-writer/producer Paul Greengrass’s effective Bourne sequel, Jason Bourne (2016), co-written and edited by Christopher Rouse and starring Matt Damon (also a producer), Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel and Julia Stiles, and grossing a strong $415.5 million for Universal Pictures.
Ahmed co-starred with Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn in Una (2016), written by David Harrower from his play, Blackbird, and directed by Benedict Andrews, but released by Thunderbird Releasing to miniscule box office after launching at the Telluride Film Festival, and which Ahmed followed up with the co-starring role (with Billie Piper) in the U.K. crime thriller, City of Tiny Lights (2016), by writer Patrick Neate adapting his 2005 novel and Pete Travis directing a cast including Cush Jumbo, James Floyd and Roshan Seth, and which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.
Riz Ahmed landed a supporting role in the first Star Wars anthology movie and prequel, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), co-starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker under Gareth Edwards’s direction, and earning a powerhouse $1.05 billion gross for distributor Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and producer Lucasfilm Ltd.
Ahmed appeared opposite John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix in director/co-writer Jacques Audiard’s cockeyed Western based on Patrick deWitt’s novel, The Sisters Brothers (2018), with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rutger Hauer, but losing money (despite strong reviews) for primary producer and distributor Annapurna Pictures ($14.6 million gross on $38 million costs) after premiering at the Venice Film Festival.
Ahmed was cast in his superhero movie as genius inventor Carlton Drake/Riot in Venom (2018), the first entry in Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures’ Spider-Man Universe series, starring Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Scott Haze and Reid Scott under Ruben Fleischer’s direction, grossing $856 million against $116 million in costs and launching the Venom franchise. Ahmed then starred and was an executive producer in one of his most awarded and nominated projects, director/co-writer Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal (2019), landing Ahmed his first Best Actor Oscar nomination (one of six nominations, including one for Best Picture and Best Screenplay, plus two Oscar wins), and co-starring Olivia Cooke and Mathieu Amalric, and released by Amazon Studios.
Riz Ahmed delivered a voice performance in the English dub of Japanese director/writer Makoto Shinkai’s lovely anime feature for Toho, Weathering with You (2019), with fellow voice cast members Brandon Engman, Ashley Boettcher, Lee Pace, and Alison Brie, and became the highest-grossing Japanese movie of 2019 with a $194 million return. Ahmed starred, co-wrote, and produced director/co-writer Bassam Tariq’s drama about an ailing British-Pakistani rap artist, Mogul Mowgli (2020), with Alysha Hart, Alyy Khan, Sudha Bhuchar, and Nabhaan Rizwan, and released in the U.S. by Strand Releasing after premiering in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival.
Ahmed performed another voice role in an animated film (and was also an executive producer), Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s non-fiction drama, Flee (2021), based on the harrowing emigration odyssey of Amin Nawabi (who voiced himself and co-wrote the screenplay with Rasmussen, who also voiced himself), and becoming the first movie to be nominated for the three Oscar categories of Best International Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature, and released in the U.S. by Neon. Ahmed starred in director/co-writer Michael Pearce’s crime drama, Encounter (2021), co-starring Octavia Spencer and Rory Cochrane, premiering at the Telluride Film Festival and released in a limited theatrical pattern by Amazon Studios.
Riz Ahmed co-starred with Chloe Grace Moretz in the lead voice roles in directors/writers Nick Bruno’s and Troy Quane’s long-delayed, Oscar-nominated animated sci-fi fantasy movie, Nimona (2023), produced via Annapurna Pictures/Annapurna Animation/DNEG Animation and released by Netflix in a limited theatrical release after premiering at the Annecy Film Festival, and then Ahmed stayed in the sci-fi genre pocket as co-star in director/co-writer Christos Nikou’s sci-fi romance, Fingernails (2023), co-starring Jessie Buckley, Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson, and released theatrically by Apple TV+ after launching at the Telluride Film Festival. Ahmed then co-starred with Lily James and Sam Worthington in director/producer David Mackenzie’s corporate thriller, Relay (2024), with Willa Fitzgerald and Victor Garber, and which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2024 before a 2025 release by distributor Bleeker Street.
Ahmed played an Arab prince in director/writer Wes Anderson’s comedy-adventure, The Phoenician Scheme (2025), starring Benicio del Toro and Mia Threapleton, with the large cast of Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, F. Murray Abraham, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe and Bill Murray, grossing a poor $38 million (on $30 million costs) for Focus Features/Universal Pictures after launching in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
Ahmed joined the starry cast of director/co-writer/producer Alejandro González Iñárritu’s American-set comedy, Judy (date to be announced), starring Tom Cruise (who was also co-lead producer), Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, and Emma D’Arcy, and produced and released by Warner Bros. with producers Legendary Pictures.
Riz Ahmed took on the daunting title role. He was a lead producer of director Aneil Karia’s and writer/producer Michael Lesslie’s present-day London version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (date to be announced), with Morfydd Clark, Joe Alwyn, Timothy Spall, and Art Malik. He was released by Focus Features/Universal Pictures. Ahmed starred in the sci-fi drama, Exit West (date to be announced), directed by Yann Demange and based on the acclaimed novel by Mohsin Hamid, produced by Anthony and Joe Russo, and executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama.
Ahmed received credits as executive producer on director/co-writer Dina Amer’s French-Egyptian drama, You Resemble Me (2021); director/co-writer Saim Sadiq’s Pakistani-American coming-of-age comedy-drama, Joyland (2022); and Pakistani-American director/writer Imran J. Khan’s comedy-drama, Mustache (2023). Ahmed was the screenwriter of the short films Daytimer (2014) and The Long Goodbye (2020) and was also the writer of several rap music videos from 2006 to 2022.
Personal life
Riz Ahmed was born and raised in the London suburb of Wembley by his Pakistani-born parents, including his father, who was a shipping broker. Ahmed has a sister (attorney) and brother (psychiatrist). Ahmed earned a scholarship to Merchant Taylors’ School, Northwood, from which he graduated; Ahmed then attended and graduated from Christ Church College at Oxford University, earning degrees in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Ahmed then studied acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Ahmed has been married to writer Fatima Farheen Mirza since 2020. Ahmed’s height is 5’ 8”. Ahmed’s estimated net worth is $10 million.
Known For
Riz Ahmed Movies
actor
Previous (25)
- 2025 |
- 2025 |
- 2023 | Fingernailsas Amir
- 2023 |
- 2022 |
2022 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action/2022 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation/2022 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Documentary
asRiz
2022 Oscar Nominated Short Films Live Action: Ala Kachuu - Take and Run (Maria Brendle), The Dress (Tadeusz Lysiak), The Long Goodbye (Aneil Karia), On My Mind (Martin Strange-Hansen), Please Hold (KD Davila).
- 2021 |
- 2021 |
Mogul Mowgli
asZed
A British Pakistani rapper is on the cusp of his first world tour, but is struck down by an illness that threatens to derail his big break.
- 2019 | Sound of Metalas Ruben Stone
- 2018 |
- 2018 |
The Sisters Brothers
asHermann Kermit Warm
Eli and Charlie Sisters, an infamous duo of gunslinging assassins, chase a gold prospector and his unexpected ally in 1850s Oregon.
- 2017 |
- 2016 | City of Tiny Lightsas Tommy Akhtar
- 2016 |
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
asBodhi Rook
In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction.
- 2016 |
Jason Bourne
asAaron Kalloor
The CIA's most dangerous former operative is drawn out of hiding to uncover more explosive truths about his past.
- 2014 |
Nightcrawler
asRick
A petty thief desperate for work muscles into the world of crime journalism and becomes the star of his own story as he blurs the line between observer and participant.
- 2012 | The Reluctant Fundamentalistas Changez Khan
- 2012 | Ill Manorsas Aaron
- 2011 | Trishnaas Jay
- 2011 | Day of the Falconas Ali
- 2010 | Four Lionsas Omar
- 2009 | Rageas Vijay
- 2009 | Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam
- 2008 | Shiftyas Shifty
- 2007 | Taking Liberties
- 2006 | The Road to Guantanamoas Shafiq
Facts About Riz Ahmed
AKA: Riz Ahmed’s rapper moniker is Riz MC.
Rapper: Ahmed (as Riz MC) released ten rap singles from 2006 to 2020, one mixtape in 2016, and two albums in 2011 and 2020 (Microscope and The Long Goodbye).
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