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A film about British citizens who were detained by the US for more than 2 years in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

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Riz Ahmed's First Movie Role as 'Shafiq' in 'The Road to Guantánamo' (2006)

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Riz Ahmed's First Movie Role as 'Shafiq' in 'The Road to Guantánamo' (2006)

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Detained and Racially Profiled at Luton Airport

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Detained and Racially Profiled at Luton Airport

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Upon return to the UK after the film premier, he was illegally detained at Luton Airport, questioned on his political views and whether he was an actor to 'further the Muslim struggle'

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To begin with, auditions taught me to get through airports. In the end, it was the other way around. I'm an actor. Since I was a teenager I have had to play different characters, negotiating the cultural expectations of a Pakistani family, Brit-Asian rudeboy culture, and a scholarship to private school. The fluidity of my own personal identity on any given day was further compounded by the changing labels assigned to Asians in general.

As children in the 1980s, when my brother and I were stopped near our home by a skinhead who decided to put a knife to my brother's throat, we were black. A decade later, the knife to my throat was held by another "Paki", a label we wore with swagger in the Brit-Asian youth and gang culture of the 1990s. The next time I found myself as helplessly cornered, it was in a windowless room at Luton airport. My arm was in a painful wrist-lock and my collar pinned to the wall by British intelligence officers. It was "post 9/11", and I was now labelled a Muslim.

Membership Event: The Long Read live at the Hospital Club

As a minority, no sooner do you learn to polish and cherish one chip on your shoulder than it's taken off you and swapped for another. The jewellery of your struggles is forever on loan, like the Koh-i-Noor diamond in the crown jewels.You are intermittently handed a necklace of labels to hang around your neck, neither of your choosing nor making, both constricting and decorative.

Part of the reason I became an actor was the promise that I might be able to help stretch these necklaces, and that the teenage version of myself might breathe a little easier as a result.

If the films I re-enacted as a kid could humanise mutants and aliens, maybe there was hope for us. But portrayals of ethnic minorities worked in stages, I realised, so I'd have to strap in for a long ride.

Stage one is the two-dimensional stereotype - the minicab driver/terrorist/cornershop owner. It tightens the necklace.

Stage two is the subversive portrayal, taking place on "ethnic" terrain but aiming to challenge existing stereotypes. It loosens the necklace.

And stage three is the Promised Land, where you play a character whose story is not intrinsically linked to his race. There, I am not a terror suspect, nor a victim of forced marriage. There, my name might even be Dave. In this place, there is no necklace.

I started acting professionally during the post-9/11 boom for stage-one stereotypes, but I avoided them at the behest of my 18-year-old self. Luckily, there was also a tiny speck of stage two stuff taking shape, subverting those same stereotypes,and I managed to get in on the act.

What kinda film you making? Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?

Security services officer

My first film was in this mode, Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantánamo. It told the story of a group of friends from Birmingham who were illegally imprisoned and tortured in the US detainment camp. When it won a prestigious award at the Berlin film festival, we were euphoric. For those who saw it, the inmates went from orange jumpsuits to human beings.

But airport security did not get the memo. Returning to the glamour of Luton Airport after our festival win, ironically named British intelligence officers frogmarched me to an unmarked room where they insulted, threatened, and then attacked me.

"What kinda film you making? Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?" an officer screamed, twisting my arm to the point of snapping.

The question is disturbing not only because it endangers artistic expression, but because it suggests our security services don't quite grasp the nature of the terror threat we all face. A training presentation outlining Al-Qaida's penchant for "theatrical" attacks may have been taken a little literally.

It turned out that what those special branch officers did was illegal. I was asked by activist lawyers if I wanted to sue, but instead I wrote an account of the incident and sent it to a few journalists. A story about the illegal detention of the actors from a film about illegal detention turned out to be too good to ignore. I was glad to shed some light on this depressing state of affairs.

I went on to write a song inspired by the incident, titled Post 9/11 Blues. It was full of sage advice, such as: "We're all suspects so watch your back / I farted and got arrested for a chemical attack." The song got the attention of Chris Morris, who cast me in Four Lions.

In the end, having my arm nearly torn off by people whose salary I pay led to me exploring loads of stage two work - loosening the necklace. It felt good, but what about stage three, the Promised Land?

It turned out that there was no clear pathway for an actor of colour in the UK to go to stage three - to play "just a bloke". Producers all said they wanted to work with me, but they had nothing I could feasibly act in. The stories that needed to be told in the multicultural mid-2000s were about the all-white mid-1700s, it seemed. I heard rumours that the Promised Land was not in Britain at all, but in Hollywood.

The reason for this is simple. America uses its stories to export a myth of itself, just like the UK. The reality of Britain is vibrant multiculturalism, but the myth we export is an all-white world of lords and ladies. Conversely, American society is pretty segregated, but the myth it exports is of a racial melting-pot, everyone solving crimes and fighting aliens side by side.

So America was where I headed. But it would not be an easy journey.

You see, the pitfalls of the audition room and the airport interrogation room are the same. They are places where the threat of rejection is real. They are also places where you are reduced to your marketability or threat-level, where the length of your facial hair can be a deal-breaker, where you are seen, and hence see yourself, in reductive labels - never as "just a bloke called Dave". The post 9/11 Necklace tightens around your neck.

I had so far managed to avoid this in the audition room, but now I faced the same threat at US airports. It didn't help that The Road to Guantánamo had left my passport stamped with an Axis of Evil world tour - shooting in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran within six months. I spent the flight sweating in defiance of air-conditioning, wondering what would await me.

When I landed, the officer assessing me shared my skin colour. I wondered whether this was a good sign or if he was one of the legendarily patriotic Cuban border officers I had heard about, determined to assess how star-spangled I was with a thumb up the anus.

He looked at my passport, then at me, frowned and drew a big 'P' over my immigration card. I immediately thought it stood for Paki.

"Protocol!"

I was led down a long corridor, without explanation, before turning into a side room that felt instantly familiar.

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Ahmed (centre) in the film Four Lions, a satire about British homegrown jihadis. Photograph: Everett Collection/REX

Apart from a Chinese family and a South American pilot battling the indignity with his spotless uniform, the holding pen was filled with 20 slight variations of my own face, all staring at me - kind of like a Bollywood remake of Being John Malkovich. It was a reminder: you are a type, whose face says things before your mouth opens; you are a signifier before you are a person; you are back at stage one.

The holding pen also had that familiar audition room fear. Everyone is nervous, but the prospect of solidarity is undercut by competition. In this situation, you're all fighting to graduate out of a reductive purgatory and into some recognition of your unique personhood. In one way or another you are all saying: "I'm not like the rest of them."

When the airport interrogation came, it was more of a car crash than my Slumdog Millionaire audition

The fresh-faced desk officer was no older than 23. By the time I was called up to audition for him, my spiel to explain the passport stamps was ready. I'd show a letter from the film's producer, I'd say "award-winning film", and I'd flash a shiny new DVD. But the kid questioning me seemed more nervous than I was. He had clearly been to the same "Beware Bloodthirsty Actors" seminar as the intelligence officers at Luton.

"Step back from the counter!"

I was bounced up the chain for a proper interrogation by a dangerously fat man and his moustache. I sat and waited, rehearsing my lines. When the interrogation came, it was more of a car crash than my Slumdog Millionaire audition.

"Oh yeah? Afghanistan? What kinda movie were you making there?"

The question shot through me with a shudder. It reminded me of the questions I faced at Luton airport, but also of the question I ask myself all the time.Was I adding to the catalogue of stage one, two, or three? Was it a film my 18-year-old self wanted? Would it make the necklace looser or tighter?

I thought about the right way to answer him. The Road to Guantánamo was a documentary-drama, but maybe saying I was in a documentary about Guantánamo Bay wouldn't be wise. Drama should do. I said: "Erm, it's an award-winning drama called The Road to Guantánamo."

There was a long silence. He raised an eyebrow. I offered up the DVD. It had a photo of me handcuffed in an orange jumpsuit on its cover. I immediately regretted it. Longer silence. Second eyebrow goes up. He leaned in.

"Do you know anyone who wants to do harm to the United States?"

I shook my head and made Hugh Grant noises, venturing a "gosh!" in there somewhere. He absorbed my performance before holding up a book from my luggage. It was Mohsin Hamid's novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

"What's this book?"

I explained, but he wasn't really listening. He deployed a state-of-the-art intelligence protocol by Googling me, which returned a news clipping about the Luton airport incident. Fuck. My heart sank. This was it. No Hollywood for me. I was never gonna be Brad Pitt. I wasn't even gonna be Apu from the fucking Simpsons. What was I thinking?

When, after an agonising three hours, I was waved through, I couldn't believe it. I felt relieved, grateful, lucky - and then suddenly incensed. On the way out past my lookalikes, I gave a loud, " As-salaam aliekum." No one leapt to return the greeting. Perhaps they lacked the safety net of a convincing "gosh!"

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Typecast as a terrorist | Riz Ahmed | The Long Read

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To begin with, auditions taught me to get through airports. In the end, it was the other way around. I'm an actor. Since I was a teenager I have had to play different characters, negotiating the cultural expectations of a Pakistani family, Brit-Asian rudeboy culture, and a scholarship to private school.

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He describes his work in the Oscar-winning short-film as being "very personal" and states that claiming this films is political is inherently privileged because the growing consensus of right wing politics and anti-Muslim/anti-Immigration hatred is rising rapidly in Europe.

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“This is very personal”: Riz Ahmed on film about rising discrimination in UK

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In this passionate and personal speech delivered by Ahmed at the House of Commons, he frames diversity as something crucial and inherently political. At 2:56, he speaks of "falling short" and alludes to a lack of representation resulting in a decrease of engagement and political apathy, with the under-represented potentially turning to alternative fringes, and sometimes, extremist narratives. He warns against alienating and excluding parts of the population. He entirely reframes the notion of 'diversity' from mere box-ticking, but as a way to avoid losing disenfranchised people to extremism. He elevates his status as more than just an actor when he offers alternative, nuanced and overlooked political perspectives.

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Riz Ahmed - Channel4 Diversity Speech 2017 @ House of Commons [subtitled/legendado]

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In this Off Camera interview, he describes code-switching as being a reason for him becoming an actor, and how not belonging in university turned out to be "great training for the film industry", again aligning his career as being intrinsically linked to his identity. Deciding to appear on this Off Camera show is significant, in that, as the name suggests, audiences are able to see Riz behind the camera, emphasising authenticity as a major part of his brand as an actor

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Riz Ahmed: "Code-Switching is Probably Why I'm an Actor"

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As a British-Pakistani Muslim, Ahmed represents multiple identities simultaneously. This enables his stories to resonate across different people and cultures: anyone who feels as if they don't entirely fit in or belong. As he speaks to prestigious news outlets such as the BBC on growing up 'code-switching' and managing different identities, audiences with similar life-experiences are likely to feel heard and understood. As a privately-educated British Asian, he is able to act as an articulate spokesman for pressing issues surrounding his community. When he represents an entire group of people, it is beneficial for his career as it encourages people to root for him as if he is one of their own.

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Riz Ahmed on dual identities, stereotypes and representation - BBC

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Riz Ahmed at a Together for Palestine event explains why he believes it has taken so long for other stars and celebrities to speak out against what is happening in Gaza. This separates him from the rest of Hollywood stars as someone inherently stands with and for the people, not allowing his stardom to get in the way of his personal moral convictions.

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"We Need an Independent Inquiry into the UK's Complicity in Genocide" | Riz Ahmed Interview

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In this W Magazine interview, Ahmed states "One of the things I learned is that deafness isn't a disability for many people. For many deaf people, it's a rich and diverse culture." He explains how he learned to play the drums and sign language for the film. His dedication to authentic performance shines through here, reflecting his commitment to telling underrepresented stories.

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Riz Ahmed Learned to Listen by Not Hearing a Thing

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Ahmed discusses how he immersed himself in deaf culture for W’s Best Performances issue.

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Less than a month after Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister, Ahmed is asked a political question regarding his opinion on Johnson. Ahmed responds by labelling him a c*nt, a racist, a liar and mocks his appearance on national television. Riz Ahmed openly positions himself as someone who is audacious and unafraid to say what other celebrities may stray away from for the sake of being 'likeable' and accepted by as large a fanbase as possible. He is relentlessly willing to risk minimising his potential fanbase by disclosing his fiery opinions on political matters. And arguably it is this breaking away from the script/mould is what increases his icon status.

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Riz Ahmed Isn't A Boris Fan | The Lateish Show With Mo Gilligan

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"This is what British looks like. It looks like me, it looks like Idris Elba"

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Riz Ahmed: "This is What British Looks Like"

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Riz Ahmed on his short film about growing up British Asian | BBC Sounds

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In this podcast Ahmed join a conversation with political commentator and journalist Mehdi Hassan. They discuss politics, identity, and the difference in racism in the US and UK.

At 21:11 he describes releasing a statement about the war in Gaza as being 'perilous' and at 23:11 he speaks on the worry of being the one to face consequences or get 'dropped', and at 24:11 they speak on having to tread carefully with regard to political opinions given identity and physical appearance as ethnic minorities.

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Riz Ahmed on Gaza, Hollywood, Protests, and Storytelling

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In this James Corden interview he tells the story of visiting Buckingham Palace with his mother.

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Riz Ahmed Almost Dapped Up Queen Elizabeth

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In this BBC Arts interview he speaks about "re-purposing the flag, stretching the flag so it's big enough to embrace all of us."

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BBC Arts - BBC Arts - ‘Stretching the flag’: Riz Ahmed on reframing British Asian life

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As Englistan comes to BBC Two, its creator talks about life in a ‘cultural no-man’s land’

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"Ahmed recalls working through that same scenario when deciding to pursue his acting career. “I couldn’t afford to go to drama school. I basically got a grant,” he says, sharing the story of how his benefactors helped get him to the point where he is today."

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Riz Ahmed, Pillars Fund, USC Annenberg & Ford Foundation Unveil the Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion (EXCLUSIVE)

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Powered by USC Annenberg’s new representation study, the coalition unveiled the Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion & a $25,000 fellowship grant.

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Riz Ahmed wants to stop Hollywood's Toxic Portrayal of Muslims

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Riz Ahmed wants to stop Hollywood's Toxic Portrayal of Muslims

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Riz Ahmed tells the BBC: "The representation of Muslims on screen feeds the policies that get enacted, the people that get killed, the countries that get invaded."

There is political reasoning behind his film career. Politics is inherent to his creative output.

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Actor Riz Ahmed wants to stop Hollywood’s ‘toxic portrayals’ of Muslims

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The Oscar-nominated British actor launches a fund to try to provide better portrayals on screen.

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Riz Ahmed on Instagram: "Calling all emerging Muslim filmakers. Want $25k and mentorship from the best in the biz? Applications for the Pillars Artist Fellowship are now open. Full details below. 👊🏽—-“Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity presented by @PillarsFund, Riz Ahmed, and Left Handed Films if you are a Muslim director or screenwriter living in the U.S. or U.K. Through this fellowship, you’ll have the chance to connect with other talented Muslim filmmakers, learn from industry professionals, and create works of art that inspire, celebrate, and uplift our communities."

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The end of the video shows a sponsor from Netflix and Amazon. This demonstrates how his personal and political commitments are repurposed and materialised. He still benefits financially from his. activism.

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Riz Ahmed on Instagram: "Calling all emerging Muslim filmakers. Want $25k and mentorship from the best in the biz? 

Applications for the Pillars Artist Fellowship are now open. Full details below. 👊🏽

—-

“Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity presented by @PillarsFund, Riz Ahmed, and Left Handed Films if you are a Muslim director or screenwriter living in the U.S. or U.K. Through this fellowship, you’ll have the chance to connect with other talented Muslim filmmakers, learn from industry professionals, and create works of art that inspire, celebrate, and uplift our communities.

Find the application at pillarsfund.org/artist-fellowship! Pillars Fund is hosting a final info session this Wednesday, May 3, 10–11:30 am PDT / 6–7:30 pm BST. Visit the link in @Pillarsfund bio to register and read the fellowship FAQ to learn more about eligibility and the application process. Thank you to our sponsors @netflix and @amazonstudios for making this fellowship possible.”"

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22K likes, 336 comments - rizahmed on April 28, 2023: "Calling all emerging Muslim filmakers. Want $25k and mentorship from the best in the biz? 

Applications for the Pillars Artist Fellowship are now open. Full details below. 👊🏽

—-

“Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity presented by @PillarsFund, Riz Ahmed, and Left Handed Films if you are a Muslim director or screenwriter living in the U.S. or U.K. Through this fellowship, you’ll have the chance to connect with other talented Muslim filmmakers, learn from industry professionals, and create works of art that inspire, celebrate, and uplift our communities.

Find the application at pillarsfund.org/artist-fellowship! Pillars Fund is hosting a final info session this Wednesday, May 3, 10–11:30 am PDT / 6–7:30 pm BST. Visit the link in @Pillarsfund bio to register and read the fellowship FAQ to learn more about eligibility and the application process. Thank you to our sponsors @netflix and @amazonstudios for making this fellowship possible.”". 

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Riz Ahmed in the Oscar-winning Sound of Metal (2019)

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Riz Ahmed in the Oscar-winning Sound of Metal (2019)

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Ahmed is lauded as the films strong point, with the reviewer stating "He gives the film energy and point."

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The existential issue of disability is worried at in this vehemently acted addiction-recovery drama about a heavy-metal drummer who suddenly experiences hearing loss. Clearly, very personal experiences are here being transformed into fiction. Director and co-writer Darius Marder has avowedly based his movie in part on his hearing-impaired grandmother, and partly on an abandoned docu-drama project he was developing 10 years ago with director Derek Cianfrance called Metalhead, in which the real-life mega-decibel metal duo Jucifer were going to play a version of themselves in which the drummer is imagined to be (unsurprisingly) going deaf. Yet in this film, hearing loss isn't the only issue at stake.

Riz Ahmed gives a typically fierce and focused performance as Ruben, drummer with an avant-metal band called Blackgammon; his partner Lou (Olivia Cooke) is guitarist and singer. They tour around the United States in an RV playing to loyal metalhead fanbases, happy enough until Ruben realises he can't hear anything - a terrifying aural fog on the soundtrack. The catastrophe is made even worse because he is a recovering heroin addict with serious relationship issues. Ruben's sponsor suggests he applies to a radical therapeutic community run by a greying Vietnam veteran called Joe, in which role Paul Raci gives a quietly weighted and serious performance. Joe's belief is that hearing-impaired people need to "learn how to be deaf": to learn how to accept their condition as a valid alternative existence, and to find the stillness inside themselves which is the vital precondition for this learning process. But angry, bewildered Ruben is still planning to somehow get the money together for a costly, risky surgery that would restore some of his hearing - though that might mean selling his RV and his musical equipment, sabotaging the musical career that was supposedly the whole point.

Sound of Metal is a painful, thoughtful, sombre film that telescopes a long story into just a few months. Ruben pretty much immediately finds a doctor to give him the hearing tests, pretty much immediately finds a place in Joe's community, pretty much immediately progresses from mutinous incomprehension to the beginnings of that surrendered wisdom that makes him an invaluable student-teacher for hearing-impaired kids. There's a nice initial scene in which Ruben is invited to write his name on the board, and he truculently scrawls it in huge letters, making all the kids flinch. It's the equivalent of yelling.

At first, it looks as if Sound of Metal is going to be all about the clash between Ruben and Joe and their differences of opinion. It's actually not a million miles away from the difference in Children of a Lesser God (1979), between William Hurt's idealistic teacher who believes in vocalisation and Marlee Matlin's rebellious former student who opposes it in favour of sign language as something with a cultural authenticity of its own, though here the teacher/pupil attitude is reversed. But the narrative progresses beyond this, into something interestingly unfinished and unclosed, leading us to Lou's own painful story, and her relationship with her father Richard (an intriguing if opaque cameo from Mathieu Amalric).

But how about Ruben's drug problem? Is he going to relapse, or what? Or is the film trying to suggest that the world of heavy metal, so far from being an admirable artistic vocation or creative calling, is just itself a type of addiction - one, moreover, with an obvious disability risk? I'm not sure. This film could just as easily have been about a drummer going deaf who had no drug problem. Sound of Metal tries to do something else, something more complex, but it looks as if disability and addiction are uneasily muddled together, and the film never quite unravels the strands. But Ahmed's performance clarifies the drama and delivers the meaning of Ruben's final epiphany. He gives the film energy and point.

Sound of Metal is released on 12 April on Amazon Prime Video and on 17 May in cinemas.

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Sound of Metal review - Riz Ahmed keeps swirling disability drama on the beat

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Darius Marder's story of a hearing-impaired, ex-heroin addict drummer perhaps tries to do too much - but Ahmed gives it focus

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Riz Ahmed in Mogul Mowgli (2020), a low-budget film produced by his company Left Handed Films with backing from the BBC and others. The film about a British-Pakistani musician who is struck down by an illness again has major ties to his personal life, career, and health scare.

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Here, he is dressed in high-end fashion (an indicator of wealth and luxury), yet the focus lies on breaking the mould of masculinity. There is a contrast between luxury imagery and the politicised discussion, demonstrating how he balances celebrity fame and glamour with authenticity and activism. Even when featured in prestigious fashion outlets, Ahmed redirects the conversation towards reshaping society. His activism becomes a part of his brand.

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Riz Ahmed on breaking the mould of masculinity

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Riz Ahmed opens up about the joy of creation ahead of his roles in Hamlet and The Phoenician Scheme, as well as his new Amazon Prime Video series, where he serves as both creator and star.

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Riz Ahmed Interviewed for Vogue by Emma Chamberlain on the Red Carpet

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Riz Ahmed Interviewed for Vogue by Emma Chamberlain on the Red Carpet

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He discusses his outfit choice as being a "shoutout to the immigrant workers" and explains his outfit is repurposed by the ethical clothing brand Forest Designed.

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Riz Ahmed on Honoring Immigrant Workers | Met Gala 2022 With Emma Chamberlain | Vogue

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Riz Ahmed Joins British Vogue As A Contributing Editor

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Riz Ahmed Joins British Vogue As A Contributing Editor

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Riz Ahmed features on the cover of this magazine. The text states 'Activism Now', 'The Faces of Hope'.

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Riz Ahmed Joins British Vogue As A Contributing Editor

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“Change is overdue, and it’s coming with or without the people that have been standing in its way”

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Riz Ahmed Speaks to Vogue About Post-Brexit Britain

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Riz Ahmed Speaks to Vogue About Post-Brexit Britain

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The British-Pakistani actor and rapper has written one of the most important records of 2020, The Long Goodbye. Here, he talks about self-love, imposter syndrome and not being defined by trauma and oppression.

Not only is he an Emmy-winning actor, but Riz Ahmed, 37, is also a highly regarded rapper. His first single - the satirical "Post 9/11 Blues" (under his Riz MC moniker) - was released in 2006, the same year he made his on-screen debut in Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantánamo. Since then, the London-born artist has written a succession of raucous, rebellious records - solo ( Microscope, his first studio album) and as one half of hip-hop duo Swet Shop Boys ( Cashmere). He's also appeared in equally subversive films, such as Chris Morris's Four Lions and Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

In 2016, things went stratospheric for Ahmed. A role in Jason Bourne was followed by a lead role in Rogue One, part of the billion-dollar Star Wars franchise. In 2017, he beat Robert De Niro (and became the first Asian and Muslim man) to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor for his role in The Night Of. He also squeezed in an appearance in Lena Dunham's genre-defining Girls and in 2018 co-starred alongside Tom Hardy in Venom.

For his first musical release in four years, Ahmed has penned a powerful, potent break-up letter to Great Britain. Interjected with hip-hop, classic Indian literature, Pakistani superheroes and qawwali samples, the record also features spoken-word interludes from Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, writer and comedian Mindy Kaling, actor and activist Yara Shahidi and comedian and actor Asim Chaudhry. The Long Goodbye is a brilliantly executed, percipient concept, which manages to be hugely emotional, provocatively political and incredibly listenable.

Here, he discusses his latest album, its accompanying short film and his new movie, Mogul Mowgli.

This is your first music release since Englistan. What led you to make this record now?
"I started to get the itch last summer. I thought, 'I've got to do this, I've got to say this. I want to make an album that's my break-up love letter [to England].' I'm going specific with my experience in Britain, but it's true if you're Muslim in India, Uyghur in China... It's true if you're Mexican in Queens, waiting for ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to knock down your door. This is how it feels [for immigrants] everywhere.

"I only make music when I've got something to get off my chest, when something that needs to be said isn't being said. So I wrote and recorded the album very quickly. It was on the tip of my tongue."

The album explores the emotions of any break-up: disbelief, hurt, anger, fear. What did you want it to express about your feelings towards England?
"I wanted to talk about how it feels to be here [in England]. It feels heartbreaking, man. It feels enraging. It feels like it's not real. When you're in a relationship, sometimes you're looking for someone else to validate you. And when you're rejected, you internalise the idea that you aren't worth anything. I'm feeling rejected by Britain, but I am fucking British. I am Britain. So evaporating that illusion of duality is really empowering."

You've just co-written, co-produced and are starring in a film called Mogul Mowgli...
"It's drawn from things in my and director Bassam Tariq's life. We didn't make it for anyone except us. The story is about a rapper who's about to get his first big break. [He] gets struck down by an illness where he's forced to confront himself as he is - without access to ambition, success and validation. Are you enough as you are? The film gets to this idea that I'm part of something bigger than just me."

So the film perfectly accompanies the album...
"There are people making albums about [shopping, smoking and cars] and that's all good. But any story about who I am and what I experience in the world that doesn't engage with [what's happening] this year - it's kind of dishonest. It's my job as an artist to hold up that mirror."

Where does the accompanying short film you made with Aneil Karia fit in?
"I wanted to frame the spoken word piece Where You From, with the urgency it deserves and to be clear that these are life-or-death stakes. I had a lot of people texting me after Brexit like, 'Bro, we gotta pack our bags.' It was the same after the [2016] elections [in the US]. Like, if you don't leave now, will your grandkids curse you for not having left when you had the chance? It's very political, but it's personal. I don't need to define myself in resistance to trauma and oppression. Yes, trauma is part of my ancestry, resisting is part of my DNA, but I have to believe I'm something more than that."

You made a powerful speech to the House of Commons in 2017 about diversity in the film and television industry. How do you think things have changed for the British-Asian community since?
"We're in a scary place politically. It transcends being British-Asian, because we all share the struggle of having enough space to be our full selves without fearing persecution. Things are getting more fucked up and things are getting better.

"We have Mayor [of London] Sadiq Khan, and I'm here chatting to you, and Dev [Patel]'s on the David Copperfield poster, and we have Asian women in parliament. It's a confusing picture. Yes, there is oppression, there is struggle, but I don't want to define myself by that. On one hand, The Long Goodbye is a political album, but what [it's really] saying is that I am more than the conversation about representation."

How did Star Wars change things for you?
" Star Wars fans know who I am now! I guess being asked to come into the spotlight tackled some of the imposter syndrome I carry. The more successful creatives I speak to, the more I realise that imposter syndrome is quite present, particularly for women and people of colour. You can feel really disconnected from who you are at your core. I grew up between different classes and different cultures. Shapeshifting is how I earn my living, so I don't knock it. But it comes at a price where you're not really sure who you are.

"Since [ Star Wars], my work has been drawn from a very personal place. People, like me, survived through being able to craft and wear masks. We grow when we lose the shame that society has put on us for being who we are and we take the masks off. What I'm trying to do now is create from a personal, unapologetic, unmasked place."

How do you find yourself outside of all that, outside of work?
"No idea [laughs]. Knitting? I guess just growing up. I admire so many young artists coming through because they seem to have such confidence in who they are. In terms of trying to get to my core self, part of that journey is hopefully the work I'm doing now."

The Long Goodbye by Riz Ahmed is out on 6 March 2020

Read more: How Adele Refused To Play By The Rules Of Celebrity - And Won

More from British Vogue:

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Riz Ahmed On His New Album & Break-Up Letter To A Post-Brexit Britain

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The British-Pakistani actor and rapper has written one of the most important records of 2020, The Long Goodbye. Here, he talks about self-love, imposter syndrome and not being defined by trauma and oppression.

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Riz Ahmed Makes Time's 100 Most Influential People List

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Riz Ahmed Makes Time's 100 Most Influential People List

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Riz Ahmed makes TIME’s 100 most influential people list

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He makes the cut in the Pioneers section of the list

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'Post-9/11 Blues' is Ahmed's first widely released rap produced after the airport incident that entails the feeling of alienation a South Asian and Muslim man living in the West like him felt after 9/11 and the War on Terror.

At 2:48, he makes a jab at stereotypical roles associated with terrorists.

The song's release on the radio was debated. MTV refused to publish the song as it was "too politically sensitive" due to the inclusion of themes such as the Iraq war.

Riz Ahmed is rebelious: his decision to produce controversial music at the beginning of his career and to take risks in order to ensure his work aligns with his creative and personal self further accentuates his claim to being an authentic star.

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The article states that Ahmed "has attracted more than his fair share of controversy during his short career."

Ahmed states that the song is "satirical and funny." The fact it is being suppressed is ironic in that it echoes the main theme in the song: that Muslims like Riz Ahmed are typecast as a threat.

He also states "'If people are responding to this track that makes me feel I should do more." The decision to stay true to oneself, rather than cowering to media pressure, is indicative of his sincerity from the start of his career. And it is this authenticity and risk-taking that put him on the trajectory to a star-level image, when he is noticed by director Chris Morris, who casts him in the hit movie Four Lions.

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Rizwan Ahmed, aka MC Riz, has attracted more than his fair share of controversy during his short career. The 23-year-old British Muslim got his first break playing one of the Tipton Three in Michael Winterbottom's acclaimed film The Road to Guantanamo. Life imitated art when he and other cast members were detained and questioned by police at Luton airport on their way back from the film's premiere in Berlin.

Now his first hip-hop single, 'Post 9/11 Blues', is dividing opinion at some of Britain's leading radio stations. Ahmed is awaiting verdicts from Radio 1 and XFM on whether the track, which includes references to the death in London of Jean Charles de Menezes and the war in Iraq, is too politically sensitive to play on air.

'It is about how the contours of our society have been distorted since 9/11, and how that affects every area of our lives,' said Ahmed. 'But it's not a rant from an angry young Muslim, it's funny, and the music is quite poppy and radio-friendly. It's a shame that a satirical song like this is seen as a threat.'

'Post 9/11 Blues' was inspired by his experiences making the film. Lines include: 'Shave your beard if you're brown and you best salute the crown/ Or they'll do you like Brazilians and shoot your ass down.' 'Hear a knockin' on the door at early dawn in the dark?/ It's MI6 they'll treat you to a week in Belmarsh.'

'If people are responding to this track that makes me feel I should do more,' said Ahmed.

In September he will appear in Gadaffi, the English National Opera's new work by Asian Dub Foundation.

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Rizwan Ahmed, aka MC Riz, is dividing opinion at some of Britain's leading radio stations with his first hip-hop single, 'Post 9/11 Blues'.

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Though never materialising, in 2018 Ahmed had extensive plans to create a Nine-part drama for the BBC 'Englistan' that planned to tell follow the story of four generations of a British-Pakistani family.

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Riz Ahmed Teaming With BBC for Nine-Part Drama ‘Englistan’

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The series will tell the story of three generations of a British-Pakistani family over four tumultuous decades.

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'Radical Vulnerability' as a Business Strategy

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'Radical Vulnerability' as a Business Strategy

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He describes the company's ethos as “creating bold, character-driven stories that stretch culture."

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Why Riz Ahmed’s Left Handed Films Employs ‘Radical Vulnerability’ as Its Business Strategy - IMDb

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IMDb, the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.

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Netflix Supporting the Pillars Fund Fellowship

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Netflix Supporting the Pillars Fund Fellowship

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Netflix regards the Pillars Fund as supporting the "historically underrepresented in the entertainment industry". The question arises as to whether Netflix truly cares about diversity and inclusion, or whether this is a marketing strategy to enhance its audience base across cultures and increase subscription revenue. The line between capital and diversity is blurred. Is diversity profitable?

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A South Asian Take on Shakespeare's Hamlet

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A South Asian Take on Shakespeare's Hamlet

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In Ahmed's performance of Hamlet, he reframes a pivotal British text through a contemporary, South Asian lens. Doing this, he merges cultural knowledge and brings an entirely new depth to one of the theatre's most traditional stories. He reinterprets strong British traditions, reinforcing his identity as an authentic boundary-breaker.

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‘Hamlet’ Review: Riz Ahmed Tackles Shakespeare’s Most Famous Hero in a Shaky Contemporary Version

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Set in London’s South Asian community, the Telluride-premiering film relies (mostly) on the Bard’s language.

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In 2024, Ahmed produced a documentary series, 'Defiance' for Channel 4. It told the tumultuous tale of British Asians during the rise of the National Front in the 70s-80s - He continues to produce and be involved in output that is culturally resonant with his background.

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1. Annie Hall - the role that reshaped comedy
Not just a funny film. Annie Hall changed how women in comedies could be messy, smart, and real. Her Oscar felt like validation for everyone who had ever been both awkward and brilliant in the same breath.
2. The nudity clause she would not touch
Even as an unknown in the Broadway cast of Hair, she had a line. They offered extra cash to do the famous nude scene. She turned it down. Principle over pay, right from the start.
3. The Christmas single nobody saw coming
3.At 78, she released a song. First Christmas. Not for a movie. Not a joke. Just a sudden, late-life urge to put a song out into the world.
4. The wardrobe - menswear that became signature
Keaton made ties and waistcoats a kind of armour. She was photographed in hats and wide trousers for decades. Style was not a costume for her; it was character. People still imitate that look, and that is saying something.
5. Comedy with bite - First Wives Club and more
She could be gentle one moment and sharp the next. In The First Wives Club, she carried the ensemble effortlessly, landing jokes while letting you feel the heartbreak beneath. Friends who worked with her spoke about her warmth and how raw she stayed about life.
6. A filmmaker and photographer, not just an actor
She directed, she photographed doors and empty shops, she wrote. She loved the weird corners of life. That curiosity kept her working and kept her interesting.
7. Motherhood, chosen late and chosen fiercely
She adopted Dexter and Duke and spoke about motherhood being humbling. She was not pressured by conventional timelines. She made her own map.
8. The last practical act
Months before she died, she listed her Los Angeles home. A quiet, practical move. No drama. It feels now like a final piece of business, a woman tidying her own affairs with clear-eyed calm.
9. The sudden end - close circle, private last months
Friends say her health declined suddenly and privately in recent months. She kept a small circle towards the end and was funny right up until the end, a friend told reporters.
10. Tributes that say it plain - "trail of fairy dust"
Stars poured out words: Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Ben Stiller, Jane Fonda, all struck by how singular she was. They kept mentioning the same thing: original, kind, funny, utterly herself.

Getty Images
So, that is the list.
We will watch her films again, of course. We will notice the hats, laugh at the delivery, and be surprised by the sudden stab of feeling in a small, silent scene. But more than that, there is a tiny, stubborn thing she did: she made permission. Permission to be odd, to age, to keep making mistakes and still stand centre screen. That is the part of her that outlives the headlines. That is the stuff that does not fade when the credits roll.

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Riz Ahmed to produce racism docuseries 'Defiance' for Channel 4

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Defiance was commissioned by Shaminder Nahal, Channel 4 Head of Specialist Factual.

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In this lengthy live conversation, through the grainy laptop camera, we see into Ahmed's living space. Joined by Hasan Minhaj and Guz Khan, in the first few minutes of the live, Guz alludes to meeting Riz for the first time as he was "definitely not breaking the law" (selling weed) at Coventry University when Riz approached he and his friend and asked if he would support his performance at the Student Union. Guz Khan makes fun of Riz's posh accent and states he initially took offence to being called a comedian and exclaimed "Do I look like a f*cking comedian?" as he walked off in anger. Riz breaks into laughter as he says, "No I didn't! He's chatting sh*t!", to which Guz swears to God it happened. In this short space of time, viewers are already given access to Ahmed's inherently authentic, pre-famous self, a story he would probably prefer to be kept private. This humorous insight into his life enhances the perceived closeness and intimacy his fans feel towards him, as they are fed gossip from his life 'insiders'. It would be difficult to go away from this one hour and fifteen minute conversation and feel like you do not know Riz Ahmed's true self personally, even if it is just one conversation between friends.

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'Where You From?' Live Discussion with Riz Ahmed, Guz Khan and Hasan Minhaj | #TheLongLockdown

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Riz Ahmed delivers a heartfelt rap about the feeling of not belonging in Britain and being made to feel like an outsider in the country he considers home.

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Riz Ahmed - Where You From | The Big Narstie Show

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During the Jonathan Ross Show, he humorously refers to himself as a 'Londonstani' at 1:41.

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Riz Ahmed 'Freestyled' His Way Out of a Terrifying Situation | The Jonathan Ross Show

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Four Lions - Watch Party with Riz Ahmed, Kayvan Novak & Nigel Lindsay | #TheLongLockdown

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This article and interview by Ciaran Thapar, he states, "It is empowering for people who can relate to Ahmed’s Wembley-Oxford-Hollywood trajectory to witness his celebrity."

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Riz Ahmed’s Long Goodbye: ‘Britannia’s saying: I need you! Come back!’

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On his latest album, The Long Goodbye, Riz Ahmed symbolically broke up with Britain. Now the country wants him back.

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This live format breaks down typical boundaries that define the way celebrities communicate with their audience. He openly positions himself as someone who is also affected by the struggles and isolation of the pandemic. The live and unedited nature of the stream, in which they discuss raw and vulnerable feelings, fosters a shared sense of intimacy between Riz and his viewers. Via this mode of communication, he is humanised and placed as existing within the everyday, inevitably reinforcing the trust between him and his audience.

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Riz Ahmed on Instagram: "I did a live therapy session with psychiatrist dr. Kamran Ahmed @dockamran1 to help with pandemic anxiety. Some great tips here, take a look and pass it on if you think someone would find it helpful."

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5,631 likes, 122 comments - rizahmed on May 21, 2020: "I did a live therapy session with psychiatrist dr. Kamran Ahmed @dockamran1 to help with pandemic anxiety. Some great tips here, take a look and pass it on if you think someone would find it helpful.". 

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Riz Ahmed (@rizahmed)

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Empire Magazine featuring Riz Ahmed on the cover. Taken from Riz Ahmed's Instagram. Available to view here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CP3SbAgFDw8/

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Cover from Empire Magazine with the title: The British New Wave

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The Observer Magazine featuring Riz Ahmed on the cover. Taken from Riz Ahmed's Instagram account. Available to view here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CXY9yvqsTd7/

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'The Reluctant Activist' from The Observer Magazine. He speaks on the 'worry' about becoming 'bigger than yourself' in Hollywood. His transparency is a key part of public image.

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Riz Ahmed on Instagram: "The devastating loss, destruction and suffering in Gaza and Lebanon is hard to watch. Thousands of children are now injured, homeless, hungry and  orphaned. And there is little hope of respite.But we must not look away – millions of people are in urgent need of our help. Our donations can help make an immediate difference to people’s lives – providing food, medicine, basic supplies, or a shelter for them and their families."

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Riz Ahmed becomes an ambassador for the ENGO Disasters Emergency Committee and urges his followers to donate life-saving support to the people of Gaza.

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Riz Ahmed on Instagram: "The devastating loss, destruction and suffering in Gaza and Lebanon is hard to watch. Thousands of children are now injured, homeless, hungry and  orphaned. And there is little hope of respite.

But we must not look away – millions of people are in urgent need of our help. Our donations can help make an immediate difference to people’s lives – providing food, medicine, basic supplies, or a shelter for them and their families.

@disastersemergencycommittee, their member charities including @britishredcross @islamicreliefuk @oxfamgb @plan_uk @savechildrenuk @worldvisionuk @rescue_uk and their local partners are responding right now. Please donate if you can #MiddleEastAppeal 

DEC fundraiser in bio."

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9,031 likes, 0 comments - rizahmed on October 28, 2024: "The devastating loss, destruction and suffering in Gaza and Lebanon is hard to watch. Thousands of children are now injured, homeless, hungry and  orphaned. And there is little hope of respite.

But we must not look away – millions of people are in urgent need of our help. Our donations can help make an immediate difference to people’s lives – providing food, medicine, basic supplies, or a shelter for them and their families.

@disastersemergencycommittee, their member charities including @britishredcross @islamicreliefuk @oxfamgb @plan_uk @savechildrenuk @worldvisionuk @rescue_uk and their local partners are responding right now. Please donate if you can #MiddleEastAppeal 

DEC fundraiser in bio.". 

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Riz Ahmed (@rizahmed)

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After the 7th of October attacks on Israel, and the subsequent relentless bombing campaign on Gaza, Riz Ahmed releases a formal statement on Instagram calling for an end to the bombing and a need to "put ourselves in the shoes of the people of Gaza", this statement comes at a time in which the British political consensus was overwhelmingly in favour Israel, just a week before the release of this statement, the Israeli flag was projected onto No.10 Downing Street. This aligns with Ahmed's personal moral conviction in taking political risks and using his voice and platform to ensure he is a true representative voice for the marginalised, despite the sensitivity surrounding the subject matter and potential backlash. Ahmed, being one of the first few Hollywood stars to speak against this, further establishes his role as a guiding moral voice in Hollywood, paving the way for true change and reshaping the typical apolitical attitude many stars in Hollywood acquire for the sake of likability.

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100K likes, 0 comments - rizahmed on October 16, 2023

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Riz Ahmed (@rizahmed)

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Riz Ahmed joins 'Artists for Ceasefire'.

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Riz Ahmed on Instagram: "Artists call for ceasefire now.

artists4ceasefire.org"

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29K likes, 0 comments - rizahmed on October 26, 2023: "Artists call for ceasefire now.

artists4ceasefire.org". 

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Riz Ahmed (@rizahmed)

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Riz Ahmed Leaves CAA for WME (Exclusive)

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WME describes itself as "the original talent agency, enabling generations of artists and creators to achieve success, impact culture, and shape a better world."

The talent agency's particular focus on encouraging its stars to "impact culture and shape a better world" might be indicative of Riz Ahmed's activism post-2019 being financially viable. Whilst his activism, frequently embedded in his work, may be inherently personal and stem from authentic roots, WME encourages and benefits from this output of Ahmed's star-image, in order to sustain its claims.

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Our website uses cookies and other tracking technologies to improve user experience. See our Cookie Policy for more information. To change your cookies, click here or check your browser settings.

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Our website uses cookies and other tracking technologies to improve user experience. See our Cookie Policy for more information. To change your cookies, click here or check your browser settings.

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Riz Ahmed starring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in the Oscar nominated Nightcrawler (2014)

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He also features on Vogue India, demonstrating how his identity becomes marketable to a global audience (Europe, America, South Asia).

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Blending cultures while making a statement, Riz Ahmed wears a kurta to the premiere of Encounter

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Wearing a custom look by Prada, the actor makes a strong case for a kurta on the red carpet

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Riz Ahmed on the cover of the British GQ Magazine. Taken from the @britishgq Instagram. Available to view here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Blu5PCtnv9a/?hl=en

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The cover from a 2018 British GQ Magazine with the subheading: The first brown Bond? 'I want to break the mould'.

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A Reddit Thread Discussing Opinions on Riz Ahmed as an Actor 

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A Reddit Thread Discussing Opinions on Riz Ahmed as an Actor 

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It is rare to find negative comments. He is a well-liked and appreciated actor amongst those who are familiar with him. One comment describes him as having "a very strong eye for interesting projects", suggesting that his meticulous reasoning when accepting or rejecting role offers works in his favour. By ensuring each role aligns with his creative and moral vision, he is subsequently able to deliver sincere and passionate performances.

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From the moviecritic community on Reddit: Thoughts about this actor

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Explore this post and more from the moviecritic community

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A Reddit Thread Discussing Riz Ahmed Calling For Change In Toxic Portrayal of Muslims on Screen.

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A Reddit Thread Discussing Riz Ahmed Calling For Change In Toxic Portrayal of Muslims on Screen.

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Many comments touch upon the dire state of Muslim representation in media, but look to Ahmed as a positive beacon of hope for reformation in reshaping how this storytelling can and should be told. There is a general appreciation for Riz, not just as an actor, but as a Hollywood-shaper, evident in these comments.

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From the ABCDesis community on Reddit: Riz Ahmed calls for urgent change in ‘toxic portrayals’ of Muslims on screen

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Explore this post and more from the ABCDesis community

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A Fan-Made YouTube Video Discussing How Riz Ahmed Is 'Changing Hollywood'

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A Fan-Made YouTube Video Discussing How Riz Ahmed Is 'Changing Hollywood'

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Riz Ahmed's first film role in docudrama The Road to Guantánamo, and the aftermath of its premiere, fundamentally shaped the trajectory of his career and identity as a star. His careful choice to portray Shafiq, a wrongfully detained Muslim man, foretold a true commitment to roles that challenge stereotypes, instead of helping to reproduce them. Taking on such a politically charged role, just years after 9/11, demonstrates a moral and personal conviction evident in his career choices. This role established how his identity and activism would remain intrinsically linked with his professional decisions as an actor. This early, risky, decision grants his future career a true sense of credibility in terms of his activism.

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Riz Ahmed Describes Himself as "Wanting to Be the Change."

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Riz Ahmed Describes Himself as "Wanting to Be the Change."

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In 2021, Ahmed describes himself as wanting to be the "change", two years after his signing with WME who describe themselves as impacting culture and shaping a better world.

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In recent years, despite his successes, Riz Ahmed has felt a sense of disconnect, unable to recognise himself in some of the characters he was playing. With Sound of Metal set for release, he talks to Kaleem Aftab about confounding expectations, being true to his heritage and his dazzling career.

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Here, he reveals health secret and describes his health crisis as shaping his outlook on life and leading to him starring in films such as Sound of Metal

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Riz Ahmed Reveals He Was Hospitalized With “Intense” & “Prolonged” Illness While Filming ‘Rogue One’

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Riz Ahmed was hospitalized for an illness amid filming Rogue One, the reality of which led him to connect with the script for 2019’s Sound of Metal.

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Majority of Ahmed's Work is Framed as Inherently Personal

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Majority of Ahmed's Work is Framed as Inherently Personal

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Riz Ahmed on Making 'Hamlet' Personal and Cultural #TIFF

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His interviews and articles often feature in sources like The Guardian or BBC, which are prestigious and respected news outlets - particularly within the UK - indicating that this authenticity is strategic, not accidental.

He frequently speaks in the collective: "As a minority, no sooner do you learn to polish and cherish one chip on your shoulder than it’s taken off you and swapped for another", positioning himself as a mainstream representative for minorities: the ideal reception from his interviews is for readers from similar ethnic or religious backgrounds to feel seen, heard, and represented, and this is what Ahmed's interviews often skew towards. He becomes a mouthpiece for minorities who are usually underrepresented in mainstream media, and this elevates his celebrity status when his success represents the success of all minorities who feel seen and represented by him.

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To begin with, auditions taught me to get through airports. In the end, it was the other way around. I'm an actor. Since I was a teenager I have had to play different characters, negotiating the cultural expectations of a Pakistani family, Brit-Asian rudeboy culture, and a scholarship to private school. The fluidity of my own personal identity on any given day was further compounded by the changing labels assigned to Asians in general.

As children in the 1980s, when my brother and I were stopped near our home by a skinhead who decided to put a knife to my brother's throat, we were black. A decade later, the knife to my throat was held by another "Paki", a label we wore with swagger in the Brit-Asian youth and gang culture of the 1990s. The next time I found myself as helplessly cornered, it was in a windowless room at Luton airport. My arm was in a painful wrist-lock and my collar pinned to the wall by British intelligence officers. It was "post 9/11", and I was now labelled a Muslim.

Membership Event: The Long Read live at the Hospital Club

As a minority, no sooner do you learn to polish and cherish one chip on your shoulder than it's taken off you and swapped for another. The jewellery of your struggles is forever on loan, like the Koh-i-Noor diamond in the crown jewels.You are intermittently handed a necklace of labels to hang around your neck, neither of your choosing nor making, both constricting and decorative.

Part of the reason I became an actor was the promise that I might be able to help stretch these necklaces, and that the teenage version of myself might breathe a little easier as a result.

If the films I re-enacted as a kid could humanise mutants and aliens, maybe there was hope for us. But portrayals of ethnic minorities worked in stages, I realised, so I'd have to strap in for a long ride.

Stage one is the two-dimensional stereotype - the minicab driver/terrorist/cornershop owner. It tightens the necklace.

Stage two is the subversive portrayal, taking place on "ethnic" terrain but aiming to challenge existing stereotypes. It loosens the necklace.

And stage three is the Promised Land, where you play a character whose story is not intrinsically linked to his race. There, I am not a terror suspect, nor a victim of forced marriage. There, my name might even be Dave. In this place, there is no necklace.

I started acting professionally during the post-9/11 boom for stage-one stereotypes, but I avoided them at the behest of my 18-year-old self. Luckily, there was also a tiny speck of stage two stuff taking shape, subverting those same stereotypes,and I managed to get in on the act.

What kinda film you making? Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?

Security services officer

My first film was in this mode, Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantánamo. It told the story of a group of friends from Birmingham who were illegally imprisoned and tortured in the US detainment camp. When it won a prestigious award at the Berlin film festival, we were euphoric. For those who saw it, the inmates went from orange jumpsuits to human beings.

But airport security did not get the memo. Returning to the glamour of Luton Airport after our festival win, ironically named British intelligence officers frogmarched me to an unmarked room where they insulted, threatened, and then attacked me.

"What kinda film you making? Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?" an officer screamed, twisting my arm to the point of snapping.

The question is disturbing not only because it endangers artistic expression, but because it suggests our security services don't quite grasp the nature of the terror threat we all face. A training presentation outlining Al-Qaida's penchant for "theatrical" attacks may have been taken a little literally.

It turned out that what those special branch officers did was illegal. I was asked by activist lawyers if I wanted to sue, but instead I wrote an account of the incident and sent it to a few journalists. A story about the illegal detention of the actors from a film about illegal detention turned out to be too good to ignore. I was glad to shed some light on this depressing state of affairs.

I went on to write a song inspired by the incident, titled Post 9/11 Blues. It was full of sage advice, such as: "We're all suspects so watch your back / I farted and got arrested for a chemical attack." The song got the attention of Chris Morris, who cast me in Four Lions.

In the end, having my arm nearly torn off by people whose salary I pay led to me exploring loads of stage two work - loosening the necklace. It felt good, but what about stage three, the Promised Land?

It turned out that there was no clear pathway for an actor of colour in the UK to go to stage three - to play "just a bloke". Producers all said they wanted to work with me, but they had nothing I could feasibly act in. The stories that needed to be told in the multicultural mid-2000s were about the all-white mid-1700s, it seemed. I heard rumours that the Promised Land was not in Britain at all, but in Hollywood.

The reason for this is simple. America uses its stories to export a myth of itself, just like the UK. The reality of Britain is vibrant multiculturalism, but the myth we export is an all-white world of lords and ladies. Conversely, American society is pretty segregated, but the myth it exports is of a racial melting-pot, everyone solving crimes and fighting aliens side by side.

So America was where I headed. But it would not be an easy journey.

You see, the pitfalls of the audition room and the airport interrogation room are the same. They are places where the threat of rejection is real. They are also places where you are reduced to your marketability or threat-level, where the length of your facial hair can be a deal-breaker, where you are seen, and hence see yourself, in reductive labels - never as "just a bloke called Dave". The post 9/11 Necklace tightens around your neck.

I had so far managed to avoid this in the audition room, but now I faced the same threat at US airports. It didn't help that The Road to Guantánamo had left my passport stamped with an Axis of Evil world tour - shooting in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran within six months. I spent the flight sweating in defiance of air-conditioning, wondering what would await me.

When I landed, the officer assessing me shared my skin colour. I wondered whether this was a good sign or if he was one of the legendarily patriotic Cuban border officers I had heard about, determined to assess how star-spangled I was with a thumb up the anus.

He looked at my passport, then at me, frowned and drew a big 'P' over my immigration card. I immediately thought it stood for Paki.

"Protocol!"

I was led down a long corridor, without explanation, before turning into a side room that felt instantly familiar.

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Ahmed (centre) in the film Four Lions, a satire about British homegrown jihadis. Photograph: Everett Collection/REX

Apart from a Chinese family and a South American pilot battling the indignity with his spotless uniform, the holding pen was filled with 20 slight variations of my own face, all staring at me - kind of like a Bollywood remake of Being John Malkovich. It was a reminder: you are a type, whose face says things before your mouth opens; you are a signifier before you are a person; you are back at stage one.

The holding pen also had that familiar audition room fear. Everyone is nervous, but the prospect of solidarity is undercut by competition. In this situation, you're all fighting to graduate out of a reductive purgatory and into some recognition of your unique personhood. In one way or another you are all saying: "I'm not like the rest of them."

When the airport interrogation came, it was more of a car crash than my Slumdog Millionaire audition

The fresh-faced desk officer was no older than 23. By the time I was called up to audition for him, my spiel to explain the passport stamps was ready. I'd show a letter from the film's producer, I'd say "award-winning film", and I'd flash a shiny new DVD. But the kid questioning me seemed more nervous than I was. He had clearly been to the same "Beware Bloodthirsty Actors" seminar as the intelligence officers at Luton.

"Step back from the counter!"

I was bounced up the chain for a proper interrogation by a dangerously fat man and his moustache. I sat and waited, rehearsing my lines. When the interrogation came, it was more of a car crash than my Slumdog Millionaire audition.

"Oh yeah? Afghanistan? What kinda movie were you making there?"

The question shot through me with a shudder. It reminded me of the questions I faced at Luton airport, but also of the question I ask myself all the time.Was I adding to the catalogue of stage one, two, or three? Was it a film my 18-year-old self wanted? Would it make the necklace looser or tighter?

I thought about the right way to answer him. The Road to Guantánamo was a documentary-drama, but maybe saying I was in a documentary about Guantánamo Bay wouldn't be wise. Drama should do. I said: "Erm, it's an award-winning drama called The Road to Guantánamo."

There was a long silence. He raised an eyebrow. I offered up the DVD. It had a photo of me handcuffed in an orange jumpsuit on its cover. I immediately regretted it. Longer silence. Second eyebrow goes up. He leaned in.

"Do you know anyone who wants to do harm to the United States?"

I shook my head and made Hugh Grant noises, venturing a "gosh!" in there somewhere. He absorbed my performance before holding up a book from my luggage. It was Mohsin Hamid's novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

"What's this book?"

I explained, but he wasn't really listening. He deployed a state-of-the-art intelligence protocol by Googling me, which returned a news clipping about the Luton airport incident. Fuck. My heart sank. This was it. No Hollywood for me. I was never gonna be Brad Pitt. I wasn't even gonna be Apu from the fucking Simpsons. What was I thinking?

When, after an agonising three hours, I was waved through, I couldn't believe it. I felt relieved, grateful, lucky - and then suddenly incensed. On the way out past my lookalikes, I gave a loud, " As-salaam aliekum." No one leapt to return the greeting. Perhaps they lacked the safety net of a convincing "gosh!"

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Typecast as a terrorist | Riz Ahmed | The Long Read

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To begin with, auditions taught me to get through airports. In the end, it was the other way around. I'm an actor. Since I was a teenager I have had to play different characters, negotiating the cultural expectations of a Pakistani family, Brit-Asian rudeboy culture, and a scholarship to private school.

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After the premiere of 'The Sound of Metal' In 2019, Ahmed joined the William Morris Endeavour talent agency - one of the leading US talent agencies - which demonstrates a further major step into embodying a Hollywood star. His entrance into Hollywood essentially being on the back of this particular film is significant. The humanist story that follows the life of a musician after he grapples with loses his hearing - a story in which Riz Ahmed draws inspiration from his personal life as a musician and his health scare in 2016 - again inevitably ties his career to stories of emotional depth, relatability, and links to social realism.

However, the film that entered him into the Hollywood spotlight was not one about his identity as a South Asian, British, and Muslim man.

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Through outlets such as Vogue, Riz Ahmed engages with luxurious fashion brands and celebrity spaces on the red carpet, yet he still uses these moments to discuss issues of identity and representation. Such interviews and magazine covers further accentuate his image as a serious, professional actor who has 'made it', and entering the world of high-status celebrity has the potential to alienate his loyal fanbase that identify with him in relation to his identity, yet his fixation on politicised issues prevents this gap from forming.

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Riz Ahmed Wins Oscar For 'The Long Goodbye'

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Riz Ahmed Wins Oscar For 'The Long Goodbye'

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In 2022, Riz Ahmed was awarded an Oscar for Aneil Karia's live-action short film The Long Goodbye.

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Riz Ahmed becomes first Asian man to win an acting Emmy Award

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The British Pakistani star picked up the Outstanding Lead Actor prize for The Night Of

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It is incredibly rare to find magazine covers and articles that do not make mention of his activism and identity. These themes become intertwined and inseparable from his public image. His social awareness becomes a marketing strategy, making him unique from other stars.

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Here, he speaks on the precarious situation he found himself in as an actor, even after landing a role in a major Hollywood film. At the time, he needed the type of support that he now strives to offer via his Pillars Fellowship.

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Daily Actor: Monologues, Acting Tips, Interviews, Resources

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"They asked me to fly to fly to L.A. I was like, 'I can't fly to L.A. I'm broke'. But I had to fly to L.A. - and just bet on myself." - Riz Ahmed

Emmy Award-winning actor and musician Riz Ahmed may now be able to count an Oscar nomination to his credit because of his extraordinary role as a heavy metal drummer who is losing his hearing in the film Sound of Metal, but like most actors it was a long road until he achieved success as an actor. In fact, speaking with the Daily Mirror, Ahmed reveals that he nearly quit acting before being cast in his breakthrough role in the 2014 film Nightcrawler because he was not making enough money.

Ahmed admits to a surprising dilemma he faced: Though he would later appear in roles in blockbusters like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Venom, he was by no means a financially-successful actor in his earlier years and could not afford to fly to Los Angeles for the audition for 2014's Nightcrawler. He reveals, "They asked me to fly to fly to L.A. I was like, 'I can't fly to L.A. I'm broke'. But I had to fly to L.A. - and just bet on myself. I spent that whole flight just running lines. I remember landing and seeing Jake Gyllenhaal in the room and going, 'Whoa'. It came when I thought I'd reached the end of the road. I wasn't really making any money, being offered that next tier of roles."

After nearly quitting acting, Nightcrawler proved to be the lifeline he needed to reach the next stage of his career. But he really was at the end of the line. He explains, "I just felt earning a couple of grand for a movie? I can't live like this. I'm not going to be able to move forward or start a family. And Nightcrawler just came to me. It was like a bit of a Hail Mary. And it ended up really opening some doors."

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'Sound of Metal' Star Riz Ahmed Almost Quit Acting Right Before Booking 'Nightcrawler'

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Riz Ahmed nearly quit acting before being cast in his breakthrough role in the 2014 film Nightcrawler because he was not making enough money.

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The Pillars Artists Fellowship, launched in 2022, is a joint initiative between Ahmed's Left Handed Films company and the Pillars Fund. It supports Muslim screenwriters and directors in the US and UK, and provides them with mentorship, funding and access to the industry.

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Genuine need for reformation of storytelling - "Data from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative that reveals Muslims comprised only 1.1% of characters in popular television series from 2018 to 2019, despite making up 25% of the world’s population."

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Malala Yousafzai on Supporting Riz Ahmed’s Pillars Artist Fellowship for Muslim Representation on Screen

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Malala Yousafzai is throwing her weight behind Pillars Artist Fellowship, which supports emerging Muslim directors and screenwriters.

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His authentic image as a British-Pakistani is strongly marketed via publicity. His authentic self becomes commodified in that speaking about race, identity, and activism is at the forefront of his career and leads most of his acting decisions. He is able to construct a celebrity image based on his identity, and by speaking on such issues, he can weigh in on heavy conversations surrounding race and, in turn, maintain relevance outside of his movie-star career.

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Despite achieving Hollwyood-level celebritydom, Riz Ahmed continues to speak about Britishness and his experience growing up in the UK. This continuity between his early-self and celebrity-self sustains a perceived intimacy with his British fanbase: he remains the same person with the same history, despite the influx of Hollywood movie roles and increased wealth and fame. He exists as "one of us" even when working in elite celebrity media. He is able to profit from this perception by working in films centred around this experience, such as the short film 'Daytimer'

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Risk-taking proved effective for Riz Ahmed's career when his song Post-9/11 Blues was noticed by director Chris Morris, who then cast Ahmed in the hit 2010 movie 'Four Lions'.

In this political satire, Ahmed was able to further entrench his career as being inherently political, working in films that had something larger to say about society.

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He Was Told Four Lions Was "Career Suicide"

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He Was Told Four Lions Was "Career Suicide"

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"I turned the film down initially. I’d just started out in that world, and done this film called Road to Guantanamo, about real-life situations taking place there, like torture. As a Muslim brown actor just graduating into the industry post-9/11, that was most of the jobs that were out there. I made the decision that I didn’t want to do films that reinforced false and negative stereotypes, I wanted to do work that challenged stereotypes."

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He demonstrates a strong level of care and cultural awareness in which he approaches his potential acting jobs - prioritising the wider effect on him and his community rather than seamless cash-grabs. He ensures that the roles he takes on align with his values.

He only accepted the role once director Chris Morris made clear to him that the film "challenges stereotypes."

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Riz Ahmed Wearing An Artists for Ceasefire Badge at the Oscars Red Carpet.

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Riz Ahmed Wearing a Blue Ribbon to Show Support For the American Civil Liberties Union at the 2017 Emmy's Award Ceremony.

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This quarantine music video was filmed on a casual phone. He positions the camera (intentionally or unintentionally) almost uncomfortably close to his face. We witness Riz as close as possible. The distance between fan and celebrity is broken down, as we are given a heightened level of access to his raw being.

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Riz Ahmed - Any Day ft. Jay Sean (Quarantine Performance)

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Within the celebrity industry, Riz Ahmed's activism functions as a form of capital, whereby speaking out on politically charged topics, he fosters a form of moral authority that differentiates him from other Hollywood stars, allowing him to be marketed as both an actor to cinephiles but also as a voice for representation for the politically engaged.

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Riz Ahmed's career exemplifies how he works both in and outside of Hollywood. International hits like Nightcrawler and Sound of Metal give him global recognisiton, but simultaneously he does not get lost in the world of Hollywood. He stays true to his roots; producing and starring in personal and independent projects like Mogul Mowgli and a South Asian take on Shakespeare's Hamlet. This balance maintains his grounded-ness and relatability. Despite global success, he maintains a sense of intimacy with his original audience.

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In 2018, Ahmed founds Left Handed Films, a company whose goal is to support underrepresented sectors of society and challenge stereotypes. His founding of Left Handed Films demonstrate his ultimate shift from acting in pre-written scripts to actively shaping and producing storytelling. After years of campaign, he becomes a cultural producer with power over economic and creative aspects of output. He undergoes a shift from being merely represented to actively shaping which stories are produced. Embodying an activism that is not passive but takes control of the narrative

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Riz Ahmed does not merely use his platform for reasons of self-promotion, but strives to redistribute opportunities for people from similar cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. He has first-hand experience with the difficulty of acquiring access to the industry, thus, he as the success story paves the way for other creatives.

He forges an alternative path: one that reflects his innate awareness of the industry and how to make the change he has spent most of his career campaigning for.

He uses the traditional structures of Hollywood to reshape and modernise the the film landscape.

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In this interview, Riz Ahmed is sitting beside Jake Gyllenhaal, one of Hollywood's contemporary leading actors, for the 2018 TV show 'The Sisters Brothers'. At 0:52, Ahmed speaks on class similarities and differences in America and the UK. Even in the prestigious, predominantly white, and upper-class world of Hollywood, he is comfortable politicising topics and brining it to the forefront of the conversation surrounding his work and roles.

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Jake Gyllenhaal & Riz Ahmed On Preparing For Their Roles In The Sisters Brothers | TIFF 2018

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Whilst Riz Ahmed may not have the same level of mainstream Hollywood attention and fame as actors like Jake Gyllenhaal, he has built a loyal and committed audience who value both his talent as an artist and authenticity off-screen. His fans respond not just to his raw and gripping performances, but to his openness around identity and activism. This creates a deeper emotional. connection and intimacy between star and fan. Audiences view him as someone who uses his platform for change, rather than just personal success.

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During the 2020 lockdown, Riz Ahmed stayed connected with his audiences through intimate and personal online content. From Instagram live therapy sessions and music performances, to live 'Watch-parties' and comedic online discussions about identity, reflecting how stars maintain intimacy and a level of visibility in moments where the way they usually reach audiences, via television screens, is blocked. It demonstrates how his authenticity is performed and sustained.

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Even in the pivotal moments of success in his career, he chooses to represent something much larger than himself.

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This article states: "He wondered whether he’d sold out. In taking studio roles, Ahmed had come to realise that he was playing characters in whose stories he didn’t recognise his own experiences."

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In recent years, despite his successes, Riz Ahmed has felt a sense of disconnect, unable to recognise himself in some of the characters he was playing. With Sound of Metal set for release, he talks to Kaleem Aftab about confounding expectations, being true to his heritage and his dazzling career.

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In photoshoots and magazine covers, Ahmed is frequently positioned face-on with a serious expression, maintaining piercing eye contact with audiences. He is codified as a solemn, important and dignified figure, entailing the weighty topics often touches upon, signifying that they have essentially become part of his brand as a celebrity.

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Ahmed Reacts to Muslim Representation on Screen to Promote His Film Mogul Mowgli (2018)

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Ahmed Reacts to Muslim Representation on Screen to Promote His Film Mogul Mowgli (2018)

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In this video, Ahmed reacts to 'bad' Muslim representation on screen. He describes the 'game' as being "messed up and rigged", stating, "Muslims are either not on screen or when they are, they're the bad guys, they're perpetrators or victims of violence. We're either invisible or we're villainised."

This is part of the promotion for his 2018 film Mogul Mowgli. Through this interview, he is able to brand his film as being 'good' Muslim representation, and therefore widen the audience reach and thus the profit he makes from the film.

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Actor Riz Ahmed Reacts To Bad Muslim Representation | MUSLIM

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Mixon, C. (2022) ‘The Riz Test: Teaching Against Islamophobia Through Film’, Journal of Religion & Film, 26(2), Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol26/iss2/4 (Accessed: 27 October 2025).

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Named after Riz Ahmed, The Riz Test in this academic paper measures "how Muslims are depicted in films and T.V. shows by asking questions about Muslim-presenting characters connected with common stereotypes, such as oppression of women or terroristic activity"

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The Riz Test_ Teaching Against Islamophobia Through Film