Riz Ahmed

Rizwan "Riz" Ahmed (Urdu pronunciation: [ɾɪzˌwɑːnˈɛɦˌməd̪]; born 1 December 1982) is a British actor and rapper. He 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. In 2017, he was named in the Time Listing of the most influential people in the world. After studying acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Ahmed began his acting career with independent films such as The Road to Guantanamo (2006), Shifty (2008), Four Lions (2010), Trishna (2011), and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012). He had his break-out role in Nightcrawler (2014), 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 (2016), Ahmed won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series. He received another Emmy nomination in the same year for his guest role in Girls. He went on to play Carlton Drake in the superhero film Venom (2018) and a drummer who loses his hearing in the drama film Sound of Metal (2019). The latter earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He produced, co-wrote, and starred in Mogul Mowgli (2020), which earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film. As a rapper, Ahmed is a member of the Swet Shop Boys and has earned critical acclaim with the hip hop albums Microscope and Cashmere and commercial success featuring in the Billboard 200 chart-topping Hamilton Mixtape, with his song "Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)" winning an MTV Video Music Award. His second studio album, The Long Goodbye, was accompanied by a short film of the same name, which won him the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. As an activist, Ahmed is known for his political rap music, has been involved in raising awareness and funds for Rohingya and Syrian refugee children, and has advocated 'BAME' representation at the House of Commons. Description above from the Wikipedia article Riz Ahmed, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Works

The Phoenician Scheme

Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins.

Release Date2025-05-23

Charactersd Prince Farouk

Vote Count447

Venom

Investigative journalist Eddie Brock attempts a comeback following a scandal, but accidentally becomes the host of Venom, a violent, super powerful alien symbiote. Soon, he must rely on his newfound powers to protect the world from a shadowy organization looking for a symbiote of their own.

Release Date2018-09-28

Charactersd Carlton Drake / Riot

Vote Count16663

Girls

The assorted humiliations, disasters and rare triumphs of four very different twenty-something girls: Hannah, an aspiring writer; Marnie, an art gallery assistant and cousins Jessa and Shoshanna.

Release Date2012-04-15

Charactersd Paul-Louis

Episode Count2

Vote Count401

The Night Of

After a night of partying with a female stranger, a man wakes up to find her stabbed to death and is charged with her murder.

Release Date2016-07-10

Charactersd Nasir 'Naz' Khan

Episode Count8

Vote Count1169

The OA

Prairie Johnson, blind as a child, comes home to the community she grew up in with her sight restored. Some hail her a miracle, others a dangerous mystery, but Prairie won’t talk with the FBI or her parents about the seven years she went missing.

Release Date2016-12-16

Charactersd Elias Rahim

Episode Count5

Vote Count1244

Nightcrawler

When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.

Release Date2014-10-23

Charactersd Rick

Vote Count11143

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

A rogue band of resistance fighters unite for a mission to steal the Death Star plans and bring a new hope to the galaxy.

Release Date2016-12-14

Charactersd Bodhi Rook

Vote Count15780

Nimona

A knight framed for a tragic crime teams with a scrappy, shape-shifting teen to prove his innocence.

Release Date2023-06-23

Charactersd Ballister Boldheart (voice)

Vote Count1225

Jason Bourne

The most dangerous former operative of the CIA is drawn out of hiding to uncover hidden truths about his past.

Release Date2016-07-27

Charactersd Aaron Kalloor

Vote Count5896

Dead Set

Zombies are rampaging throughout Britain. Blissfully unaware of gory events outside, the Big Brother housemates are in for the ultimate eviction night...

Release Date2008-10-27

Charactersd Riq Rahman

Episode Count5

Vote Count303

Sound of Metal

Metal drummer Ruben begins to lose his hearing. When a doctor tells him his condition will worsen, he thinks his career and life is over. His girlfriend Lou checks the former addict into a rehab for the deaf hoping it will prevent a relapse and help him adapt to his new life. After being welcomed and accepted just as he is, Ruben must choose between his new normal and the life he once knew.

Release Date2020-11-20

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Charactersd Ruben Stone

Vote Count2651

Centurion

Britain, A.D. 117. Quintus Dias, the sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus' legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the Earth and destroy their leader, Gorlacon.

Release Date2010-02-15

Charactersd Tarak

Vote Count1460

The Sisters Brothers

Oregon, 1851. Hermann Kermit Warm, a chemist and aspiring gold prospector, keeps a profitable secret that the Commodore wants to know, so he sends the Sisters brothers, two notorious assassins, to capture him on his way to California.

Release Date2018-09-19

Charactersd Hermann Kermit Warm

Vote Count1978

10 Minute Tales

The biggest names in writing, acting and directing come together in a series of shorts on Sky1 HD this festive period. Experience a novel Noel with these original, uplifting and highly creative slices of silent cinema that prove actions do speak louder than words. Starring Mackenzie Crook, Bill Nighy, Peter Capaldi, Ross Kemp, and a host of major stars, each of the 10 Minute Tales promises to be a unique and engaging look at life, loss, and love.

Release Date2009-12-21

Charactersd Joseph

Episode Count1

Vote Count2

Wired

Louise Evans is a single mother who works as a customer advisor for big bucks investors at a slick, pin-striped bank. On a night out with her best friend Anna she's introduced to Anna's slippery new boyfriend Phillip. Phillip makes Louise an indecent proposal: accept a briefcase full of money in return for helping him to defraud one of the bank's richest clients.

Release Date2008-10-13

Charactersd Manesh Kunzru

Episode Count3

Vote Count13

Relay

Tom, a world class "fixer", specializes in brokering lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten their ruin. He keeps his identity a secret through meticulous planning and always follows an exacting set of rules. But when a message arrives one day from potential client Sarah, needing Tom's protection just to stay alive, the rules quickly start to change.

Release Date2025-08-21

Charactersd Tom

Fingernails

Anna and Ryan have found true love together. It’s been proven by a controversial test. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she meets Amir.

Release Date2023-10-27

Charactersd Amir

Vote Count187

Four Lions

Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. As the wheels fly off, and their competing ideologies clash, what emerges is an emotionally engaging (and entirely plausible) farce.

Release Date2010-05-07

Charactersd Omar

Vote Count1189

Encounter

A decorated Marine goes on a rescue mission to save his two young sons from an unhuman threat. As their journey takes them in increasingly dangerous directions, the boys will need to leave their childhoods behind.

Release Date2021-12-03

Charactersd Malik Khan

Vote Count437

Closed Circuit

A high-profile terrorism case unexpectedly binds together two ex-lovers on the defense team - testing the limits of their loyalties and placing their lives in jeopardy.

Release Date2013-08-28

Charactersd Nazrul Sharma

Vote Count471

Black Gold

On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.

Release Date2011-12-21

Charactersd Ali

Vote Count288

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

In New York, a Pakistani native finds that his American Dream has collapsed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Release Date2013-04-24

Charactersd Changez

Vote Count220

The Path to 9/11

Beginning with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and ending on the morning of 9/11, the draws on detailed information from the 9/11 Commission Report to take viewers on an unforgettable journey through the events that presaged that fateful day -- to understand what went right and wrong, and what can be learned from this crucial eight-year period.

Release Date2006-09-10

Charactersd Yosri

Episode Count2

Vote Count15

Una

When a young woman unexpectedly arrives at an older man's workplace, looking for answers, the secrets of the past threaten to unravel his new life.

Release Date2017-03-30

Charactersd Scott

Vote Count272

Britz

Two British-born Muslim siblings are drawn in radically different directions after 9/11.

Release Date2007-10-31

Charactersd Sohail

Episode Count2

Vote Count2

Trishna

When her father is killed in a road accident, Trishna's family expect her to provide for them. The rich son of an entrepreneur starts to restlessly pursue her affections, but are his intentions as pure as they seem?

Release Date2011-09-08

Charactersd Jay

Vote Count50

City of Tiny Lights

In the teeming, multicultural metropolis of modern-day London, a seemingly straightforward missing-person case launches a down-at-heel private eye into a dangerous world of religious fanaticism and political intrigue.

Release Date2016-09-12

Charactersd Tommy Akhtar

Vote Count84

Rage

A schoolboy uses his cellphone camera to shoot intimate interviews with people working at a New York fashion house and secretly posts them on the internet. Result: a bitterly funny expose of an industry in crisis, during a week in which an accident on the runway becomes a murder investigation, and denial leads to devastation.

Release Date2009-09-24

Charactersd Vijay

Vote Count25

The Long Goodbye

A short about racism and Islamophobia in the UK.

Release Date2020-03-06

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Charactersd Riz

Vote Count64

Ill Manors

Ensemble film revolving around characters living in Forest Gate, London. Over the course of a few days, six inter-linking stories explore issues of drug use, prostitution and urban poverty.

Release Date2012-06-06

Charactersd Aaron

Vote Count135

Dammi

Returning to Paris, a man moves through memories of his past and surreal fragments of the present, searching for connection with his estranged father. On his journey, he meets a French-Algerian woman. As their intimacy grows, he is confronted with his shame and fears while exploring his lost Arab identity… Behind Paris is Algiers.

Release Date2023-08-02

Charactersd Mounir

Vote Count9

Quarter Life

Shah Latif is a struggling actor on the cusp of landing the role of a lifetime, only to find himself thrust into a full blown existential crisis and trippy conspiracy thriller all at the same time.

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Charactersd Shah Latif

Freefall

FREEFALL is the first drama to tackle the extraordinary financial crisis Britons are living through. Helmed by multiple BAFTA-winning director Dominic Savage, the film takes a startling and provocative look at the events that caused people's lives to spiral out of control. With pace, edge and real emotional punch, it gives a unique insight into how the country came so perilously close to the edge.

Release Date2009-07-13

Charactersd Gary

Vote Count10

Britz

Sohail is an ambitious law undergraduate who signs up with MI5 and, eager to play a part in protecting British security, begins an investigation into a terrorist cell. His sister Nasima is a medical student in Leeds who becomes increasingly alienated and angered by Britain's foreign and domestic policy after witnessing at first hand the relentless targeting of her Muslim neighbours and peers. With action set in Pakistan, Eastern Europe, London and Leeds, both feature-length episodes detail a tragic sequence of events from two distinct perspectives. At the heart of this thought-provoking drama is a revealing examination of British Muslim life under current anti-terror legislation. Britz ultimately asks whether the laws we think are making us safer, are actually putting us in greater danger.

Release Date2007-11-05

Charactersd Sohail Wahid

Vote Count12

Mogul Mowgli

Zed, a young British rapper, is about to start his first world tour, when a crippling illness strikes him down, forcing him to move back in with his family. He tries to find himself between an international music career and Pakistani family traditions.

Release Date2020-10-30

DepartmentWriting

JobStory

Charactersd Zed

Vote Count44

Exit West

A young refugee couple from a war-torn country hears rumours that there are doors in the city they live that serve as portals to other destinations.

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Charactersd Saeed

Shifty

Shifty, a young crack cocaine dealer in London, sees his life quickly spiral out of control when his best friend returns home. Stalked by a customer desperate to score at all costs, and with his family about to turn their back on him for good, Shifty must out-run and out-smart a rival drug dealer, intent on setting him up for a big fall.

Release Date2008-10-24

Charactersd Shifty

Vote Count35

Hamlet

Set in a modern-day London of economic and political uncertainty, the story follows the intersecting themes of familial honor, moral duty and dynastic corruption.

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Charactersd Hamlet

The Road to Guantanamo

Part drama, part documentary, The Road to Guantánamo focuses on the Tipton Three, a trio of British Muslims who were held in Guantanamo Bay for two years until they were released without charge.

Release Date2006-03-09

Charactersd Shafiq

Vote Count120

Banglatown Banquet

Middle-aged Muslim Bangladeshi women struggling for their freedom as they leave the familiarity of their Bangladeshi community and set out on a voyage of discovery.

Release Date2006-03-25

Charactersd Razual

Baghdad Express

A young girl working in her father's Arabic restaurant is forced to decide which comes first - her dreams or her family.

Release Date2008-10-27

DepartmentSound

JobOriginal Music Composer

Charactersd Talal

The Stories: The Making of 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' is a 2017 documentary detailing the production of the standalone Star Wars film. The featurette explores the creative process, behind-the-scenes challenges, and collaborative efforts of the cast and crew in bringing Rogue One to the screen.

Release Date2017-04-04

Charactersd Self

Vote Count7

Comedy Lab

Comedy Lab is a British television series which showcases pilots of experimental comedy shows. Series have been aired irregularly on Channel 4 and E4 since 1998. Several pilots first shown on Comedy Lab have gone on to spawn full series, most notably Trigger Happy TV, Fonejacker, That Peter Kay Thing, Meet the Magoons and FM. It also gave Jimmy Carr his first television appearance in Jimmy Carr's World of…Corporate Videos. The 2001 series features the episodes Knife and Wife, Orcadia, Daydream Believers: Brand New Beamer and Jimmy Carr's World of…Corporate Videos featuring Jimmy Carr. The 2008 series features the episodes Headwreckers, Mr and Mrs Fandango, Olivia Lee's Naughty Bits, Karl Pilkington: Satisfied Fool, Pappy's Fun Club, School of Comedy and Slaterwood. 2010's shows are iCandy, Happy Finish, Penelope Princess of Pets, Jack Whitehall Secret Census, Filth, Moviemash and Hung Out. The 2011 lineup includes: Anna & Katy, Totally Tom and Rick and Peter.

Release Date1998-11-01

DepartmentCrew

JobCreator

Episode Count1

Vote Count5

Flee

Recounted mostly through animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his past as a child refugee from Afghanistan as he grapples with a secret he’s kept hidden for 20 years.

Release Date2021-06-17

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count369

Joyland

As a patriarchal family yearns for the birth of a son to continue their family line, their youngest son secretly joins an erotic dance theatre and falls for its transgender starlet.

Release Date2022-11-18

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count139

Defiance: Fighting the Far Right

In 1976, young Sikh Gurdip Singh Chaggar is murdered in west London. The National Front are rising. So young British Asians join forces to defend themselves.

Release Date2024-04-08

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Episode Count3

Vote Count4

You Resemble Me

Two sisters are abruptly separated, the eldest, Hasna, struggles to find her identity and place in the world.

Release Date2022-11-04

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count7

Mustache

It’s the mid-90’s in Northern California and 13-year-old Pakistani-American ILYAS is facing a major crisis — his parents yanked him out of his comfortable Islamic private school and now he has to face life at public school. Ilyas’ fears about joining public school are made worse by insecurities due to his inescapable, prepubescent MUSTACHE. Ilyas hatches a hilarious plan to return to his old school — but he must also learn to accept himself.

Release Date2023-03-12

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count2

Daytimer

1999, Naseem gives school and home the slip to attend his first daytime rave.

Release Date2014-10-16

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3

Moshari

The end of the world forces two sisters together, inside a mosquito net, just to live on—but first they must survive each other.

Release Date2022-03-13

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count6

Judy

The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity's saviour before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.

Release Date2026-10-01

Violent Talent

A man and his two oldest friends try to build a criminal empire in contemporary Chicago where he feels that crime might be the most honest job around.

The Play's the Thing

Release Date2006-06-12

Episode Count1

Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam

Three years in the making, this feature documentary follows the progression of the Muslim Punk scene: from its imaginary inception in a novel written by a white-convert named Michael Muhammad Knight to a full-blown, real-life scene of Muslim punk bands and their fans.

Release Date2009-11-03

Vote Count5

Lines

Six poems written by six young prisoners animated to tell their stories, thoughts, fears and hopes.

Release Date2021-02-10

Vote Count1