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.
Ahmed's film career began in the 2006 Michael Winterbottom film The Road to Guantánamo, in which he played the part of Shafiq Rasul, a member of the Tipton Three. He and another actor involved in the film were detained at Luton Airport upon their return from the Berlin Film Festival where the film won a Silver Bear Award.[9] 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.[10]
In 2007, he portrayed Sohail Waheed in the Channel 4 drama, Britz. Ahmed then portrayed Riq in the five-part horror thriller Dead Set for E4 and Manesh Kunzru in ITV1's Wired in 2008. Also that year he played a primary school teacher in Staffroom Monologues for the specialist channel Teachers TV. In July 2009, he appeared in Freefall alongside Sarah Harding.[4] He featured in the title role of the 2009 independent film Shifty, directed by Eran Creevy. Ahmed plays a charismatic young drug dealer in the film which sees a life in the day of this character. He was nominated for Best Actor at the 2008 British Independent Film Awards.[11]
Ahmed is also 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 (directed by Jack William Clift and Thomas Sweatman) as well as in Shan Khan's Prayer Room.[14]
Ahmed at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival
Ahmed directed and wrote a 2014 short film, Daytimer. It won the Best Live Action Short award at Nashville Film Festival, and was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.[15] In 2014, Ahmed appeared in Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler.[16] Ahmed received acclaim for his portrayal in the film and gained numerous awards nominations during awards season.[17] Riz Ahmed was one of seventy-five actors to audition for the role of Rick.[18] The British actor was attending a friend's wedding in Los Angeles, when his talent agent suggested he meet Gilroy to discuss the film's script. Gilroy told Ahmed that he had seen his previous work; he was not fit for the role, but still allowed him to audition.[19] Within the first minute of his audition tape, however, Gilroy felt confident in the actor's abilities.[18] To prepare for the role, Ahmed met with homeless people in Skid Row, and researched homeless shelters to "understand the system". He found that most of the people dealt with abandonment issues, and attempted to replicate this in Rick's abusive relationship with Lou.[19]
In 2017, it was rumoured that Ahmed was to play Hamlet in a Netflix adaptation of the Shakespeare play,[35] which Ahmed later confirmed.[36]
In 2018, 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.[37][38] Ahmed explained that Drake is trying to save the future of humanity when he discovers the symbiote,[38] with Fleischer adding that Drake has a positive goal but a "moral ambiguity" that leads to him testing his science on other people.[39]
As of 2018, films that Riz Ahmed had been involved in had collectively grossed $2.4 billion at the worldwide box office.[40]
Following his mixtape under the same name, Ahmed's Englistan, an original TV series was commissioned by BBC Two and Left Handed Films in 2018.[41] The series will tell the story of three generations of a British Pakistani family.[42] Ahmed describes the series as "a period drama – unlike any other period drama you have seen before."[42] More currently, his production company secured a first look deal with Amazon.[43]
In February 2021, Ahmed was nominated and won in the best debut screenwriter category for the film Mogul Mowgli at the delayed British Independent Film Awards 2020.[47] Starring in the main role as a British-Pakistani rapper, The Guardian film critic Wendy Ide praised his "blistering performance" on screen.[48]
In August 2021, Ahmed was named as head of the Platform Prize jury for the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.[49] In November 2021, 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".[50]
Ahmed voiced Ballister Boldheart in Nimona, which released on June 30, 2023 on Netflix.[51] He also has upcoming roles in the films Fingernails and Relay.
In November 2023 Riz Ahmed and his company Left Handed Films joined the 2023 SXSW audience award winner Mustache.
Inspired by jungle and hip hop music, his music career began in his mid-teens, appearing on pirate radio and in freestyle rap battles.[52] While at university, Ahmed co-founded the Hit & Run night in Oxford, which has since moved to Manchester and gone on to become one of Manchester's leading underground music events.[53] At Oxford, he was also part of a 12-person jazz-house/electronica band called Confidential Collective.[52] After graduating, he competed in and won many rap battle competitions.[52] He competed as Riz MC on JumpOff TV's "Spin the Mic" freestyle rap battle contest in 2006. He beat contestants Stig and Skilla Mic,[54] 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.[55]
In 2011, he released his debut album, Microscope,[58] which was re-released with additional remixes in 2012.[59] On 1 December 2011, it was announced that Riz MC had signed to Tru Thoughts, an independent label in Brighton.[60] From Microscope, he released "Sour Times" which was accompanied by a video featuring Scroobius Pip, Plan B, Tom Hardy,[61] and Jim Sturgess.[53] Formed in 2014, Ahmed is half of the hip hop duo Swet Shop Boys along with Heems.[62] Their debut release, Swet Shop EP, was released in 2014.[63] The group's debut full-length effort, Cashmere, was released on 14 October 2016,[64] and received critical acclaim.[65] In 2016, he also released a mixtape, Englistan.[66] He was featured on the song "Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)" in The Hamilton Mixtape, which topped the Billboard 200 chart. This put him in the unique position of sitting at number-one on both the Billboard 200 album chart and the movie box office chart (with Rogue One) at the same time.[67] At the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), "Immigrants" won the award for Best Fight Against the System,[68] giving him the rare distinction of winning both the Emmy and VMA awards.[69]
The Riz Test
In 2018, Sadia Habib and Shaf Choudry, two researchers in the UK, were inspired by Ahmed to determine a method to quantify the nature of Muslim representation in film and TV.[70] Ultimately they came up with a test they named "The Riz Test", which has been compared to the Bechdel test.[71] The test came about following a speech given by Ahmed in 2017 at the House of Commons, in which he addressed what he views as a lack of diversity in film and television.[72] Ahmed has spoken about the lack of accurate representation of Muslims in the arts, and often expresses these views on social media.[73]
The Riz 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:[74][75]
If a character is identifiably Muslim, is the character talking about, the victim of, or the perpetrator of terrorism?
Presented as irrationally angry?
Presented as superstitious, culturally backwards or anti-modern?
Presented as a threat to a Western way of life?
If the character is male, is he presented as misogynistic? or if female, is she presented as oppressed by her male counterparts?[75]
One of the tests' creators, Shaf Choudry, describes the test as not being "a scientific measure of Islamophobia, it’s more to prop conversation."[75]
Ahmed acknowledged the test in 2018, expressing his surprise at the test being named after him and writing on Twitter that he was "glad to see this" and that he thought it was "much needed."[75][76]
Activism
As a Muslim, Ahmed has spoken candidly about negative stereotyping of Muslims, both in a personal and societal context.[77][78]
In 2013, Ahmed provided journalist Hardeep Singh Kohli with a formal apology for a tweet he had published in which he called Singh a "bigot" and falsely accused him of attempted assault. Ahmed also agreed to pay him substantial damages for libel and his legal costs.[81][82]
In 2016, he contributed an essay on racial profiling at airports, auditions and the implicit need to leave himself at a door to be waved through for the anthology The Good Immigrant.[83]
During the Israel-Hamas war, Ahmed called for Israel to stop its "indiscriminate bombing of Gaza’s civilians and vital infrastructure, the denial of food, water and electricity, the forced displacement of people from their homes", which he called "morally indefensible war crimes".[84]
^Buchanan, Kyle (28 January 2021). "Losing Control With Riz Ahmed". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2021.