Rizwan Ahmed (born 1 December 1982) is a British actor and rapper. He has received several awards, including an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and two British Academy Film Awards. In 2017, he was named by Time as one of the most influential people in the world. He also created the TV series Englistan in 2018 for the BBC, which was also his writing debut. 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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Riz Ahmed, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography

• Bait — Shah Latif, Executive Producer, Writer, Songs, Creator
• 2026Digger — Dr. Nirav Ganesh
• 2026Hamlet — Hamlet, Producer
• 2025Relay — Ash
• 2025The Phoenician Scheme — Prince Farouk
• Defiance: Fighting the Far Right — Executive Producer
• 2023Dammi — Mounir
• 2023Fingernails — Amir
• 2023Mustache — Executive Producer
• 2023Nimona — Ballister Boldheart (voice)
• 2022Joyland — Executive Producer
• 2022Moshari — Executive Producer
• 2022You Resemble Me — Executive Producer
• 2021Encounter — Malik Khan
• 2021Flee — Executive Producer
• 2021Lines
• 2021The Long Goodbye — Riz, Writer
• 2020Mogul Mowgli — Zed, Story, Writer, Producer
• 2020Sound of Metal — Ruben Stone, Executive Producer
• 2018The Sisters Brothers — Hermann Kermit Warm
• 2018Venom — Carlton Drake / Riot
• 2017Una — Scott
• 2016City of Tiny Lights — Tommy Akhtar
• 2016Jason Bourne — Aaron Kalloor
• 2016Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — Bodhi Rook
• The Night Of — Nasir 'Naz' Khan
• The OA — Elias Rahim
• 2014Daytimer — Director, Writer
• 2014Nightcrawler — Rick
• 2013Closed Circuit — Nazrul Sharma
• 2013Out of Darkness — Male
• 2013The Reluctant Fundamentalist — Changez
• Girls — Paul-Louis
• 2012Ill Manors — Aaron
• 2011Black Gold — Ali
• 2011Trishna — Jay
• 2010Centurion — Tarak
• 2010Four Lions — Omar
• 10 Minute Tales — Joseph
• 2009Freefall — Gary
• 2009Rage — Vijay
• 2008Baghdad Express — Talal, Songs
• Dead Set — Riq Rahman
• 2008Shifty — Shifty
• Wired — Manesh Kunzru
• 2007Britz — Sohail Wahid
• Britz — Sohail
• 2006Banglatown Banquet — Razual
• The Path to 9/11 — Yosri
• The Play's the Thing
• 2006The Road to Guantanamo — Shafiq
• Exit West — Saeed, Executive Producer
• Growth
• The Big Fix
• Violent Talent

Appearances as themselves (22)

• Saturday Night Live UK — Self - Host
• 2026The Name of Action — Self
• Behind the Mic: The Making of The Harry Potter Full-Cast Audio Editions — Self
• 2025Together for Palestine — Self
• The Jennifer Hudson Show — Self - Guest
• The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan — Self
• The Big Narstie Show — Self
• 2017The Stories: The Making of 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' — Self
• Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter — Self
• The Late Late Show with James Corden — Self
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — Self - Guest
• Off Camera with Sam Jones — Self
• The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — Self - Guest
• Variety Studio: Actors on Actors — Self
• The Jonathan Ross Show — Self
• 2009Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam — Self
• The Graham Norton Show — Self
• Jimmy Kimmel Live! — Self, Self - Guest
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show — Self - Musical Guest
• The Daily Show — Self
• LIVE with Kelly and Mark — Self
• The Oscars — Self