Rizwan Ahmed better known by his stage names Riz Ahmed and Riz MC, is a British Pakistani actor, rapper, and activist.
Background
Ethnicity:
Riz's parents are of Muhajir background; his grandparents migrated from India to Pakistan during the 1947 partition of India.
Ahmed was born in Wembley, London, in 1982, to a British Pakistani family. His father is a shipping broker. His parents moved to England from Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan, during the 1970s. He is a descendant of Sir Shah Muhammad Sulaiman, the first Indian to become the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh during the colonial era. He also composed Urdu poetry, penned some of the first critical articles on Einstein's theory of relativity, and was related to Mulla Mahmud Jaunpuri (d. 1652), one of the most important philosopher–scientists produced in the region during the Mughal Empire.
Education
Riz won a scholarship to the public school Merchant Taylors', where he felt he didn't belong, before eventually making it his own. Then he went on to Oxford University to study philosophy, politics and economics, and felt even more strongly that he didn't belong, though again he made his mark. After Oxford, he studied acting at Central School of Speech & Drama in London.
Talking about the career journey of Riz Ahmed, he is active in the entertainment field since 2006 and he is still active in it. In 2006, he debuted in the movie The Road to Guantanamo portraying the character of Shafiq. In the same year, he also appeared as Yosri in two episodes of The Path to 9/11.
Riz's career took on a successful path with the notable role of Shifty in the movie Shifty. For the role, he was also nominated for British Independent Film Award for Best Actor. He has spread her wings equally at ease with both forms of media. With his impressive acting, he has been successful in impressing his fans and critics.
In 2010, he appeared in the movie Four Lions with the role of Omar and as Aaron in the film Ill Manors in 2012. In 2014, he was known to the world as Rick in the film Nightcrawler. In 2016, he appeared in the television miniseries The Night of as Nasir Khan and for the role, he was nominated for Golden Globe and SAG Award.
Besides acting career, Ahmed is also a rapper who has released several singles, mixtapes, and album. He formed the hip-hop group Swet Shop Boys with Heems of Das Racist. He launched his first album Microscope in 2011 and his mixtape Englistan in 2016. His success in career path has paid him well financially making his net worth estimated to be $3 million. He is currently engaged in filming The Sisters Brothers in which he will appear as Morris.
As an actor, Riz Ahmed has won one Emmy Award, out of two Emmy nominations, and was also nominated for a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, and three British Independent Film Awards. He was initially known for his work in independent films such as The Road to Guantanamo (2006), Shifty (2008), Four Lions (2010), Trishna (2011), Ill Manors (2012), and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013), before his break-out role in Nightcrawler (2014). At the 2017 Emmy Awards, he received two nominations, for his performance in The Night Of and his guest spot in Girls; he won the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for The Night Of, becoming the first Asian and first Muslim to win in the category, the first South Asian male to win an acting Emmy, and the first Muslim and first South Asian to win a lead acting Emmy.
As a rapper, he is a member of the Swet Shop Boys, earned critical acclaim with the hip hop albums Microscope and Cashmere, and earned 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.
In 2017, he was included on the front cover of the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
Ahmed is a Muslim. He identifies as a Muslim, but doesn’t bring his religious beliefs into his work. When asked about his song, Post 9/11 Blues, he says it’s not written from the point of view of a Muslim, but with the atmosphere of fear after the event.
Politics
As an activist, he has been involved in raising funds for Syrian refugee children and advocating representation at the House of Commons. He has also been involved in raising awareness of the displacement of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, and raising funds for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
He is known for his political rap music, his political rap has inspired many, has been involved in raising awareness and funds for Rohingya and Syrian refugee children, and has advocated representation at the House of Commons.
Views
He has spoken candidly about Islamophobia, both in a personal and societal context.
Quotations:
"I think creativity is something that best happens when you have clear parameters. If you're not confined by anything then it's meaningless. You've got to rap over the beat, or you've got to color within your canvas. You pick the canvas size first. That makes most sense to me."
"Bandwagons roll through our lives. Its up to you whether you jump on them unquestioningly or jump on them to overturn them and subvert them."
"First, you have stereotypes, and that will be the black drug dealer, the east Asian kung fu master, the Middle Eastern terrorist in 'True Lies.' Then you have stuff that takes place on culturally specific terrain, that engages with it, but actually subverts assumptions. 'Smashes' stereotypes. That's where I've come into the game."
"The music I make and the process of acting, for me, are both about trying to understand people and get inside what makes us tick. That's the main thing that excites me. Our sense of who we really are and what drives us."
"You know my parents, man, they're just the most loving, encouraging... They're like those people who define themselves through their role as parents before people in their own rights."
"It's crazy how we always hate the things closest to us."
"No-one gets a job at 16 and stays in it until 60 any more; we're connected to more people simultaneously than ever before, whether online or on our phones. We wear so many different hats within one day, one week, a lifetime."
"I'm working it out, man. I'm working through some stuff, trying to find my way like everyone."
"My music is a very personal reflection of me, whereas, acting a role, thats a reflection of another character."
"I think that in an Internet age, content is content. As long as you can stand up on the merits of what you're doing right at that moment and aren't just relying on your success in doing something else, it's all good; people will respect you."
"The racism in South Asia is the most specific racism in the world. It's like racism against a slightly different language group. It's like micro-racism."
"There's this thing, something in the water in America that is so intoxicating as well, that's like your dreams can come true. You can have it all. You can be the master of your destiny. There's this thing it encourages - this illusion of your significance."
"The only people who have doubts about the sincerity of my music are people who come to it relatively late, off the back of having seen me in a film. Acting is about being other people, and music is about being myself."
"I think that with piracy and tighter funds being around, people are realising that the game to play is to try and win people's respect with bold film making and then win a special place in people's collections, rather than just having the biggest opening weekends."
Personality
Riz Ahmed talks very fast. He has opinions on everything, and he hurls them at you so enthusiastically, so ferociously, that before long you feel battered.
He's quiet and discreet. He has a facility for slipping into places, becoming part of the furniture, absorbing the experience of others. This is what makes him such a fine actor. He has an ability to disappear into roles, and can play pretty much anything: posh/working class, naturalistic/over the top, any number of nationalities.
Ahmed drives a battered old car.
Physical Characteristics:
He is small, lean and handsome, with something of the chameleon about him – catch him at different angles, and you could be looking at different people.
He has a height of 5 feet 8 inches (1.72m) with body weight 70 kg. His hair color is black and his eye color is dark brown.
Interests
His favorite TV series growing up in the UK was The A-Team (1983).
Music & Bands
Inspired equally by jungle and hip-hop, Ahmed first got involved with music directly in his mid-teens, cutting his teeth on pirate radio and in battle-rap competitions, of which he won many. He was selected as a BBC Introducing artist in 2007, playing the Glastonbury Festival and the BBC Electric Proms.
Connections
There is no information on Riz dating anyone, now he is single.
colleague:
Freida Pinto
(born 18 October 1984)
She is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films.
