[1] In a professional capacity, Ahmed served as a Youth Program Coordinator at the Bedlam Theater in Minneapolis.
Ahmed and three other actors were picked from among more than 700 participants at a 2011 casting call at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis.
According to the search casting director, Debbie DeLisi, the four were selected because they were "the chosen ones, that anointed group that stuck out.
"[3] In early 2014, he revealed that he was going to Los Angeles by spring in order to continue his acting career.
[5] Ahmed reunited with Captain Phillips castmate Barkhad Abdi, in the second season of Castle Rock, in which he starred in six episodes.