Rizwan "Riz" Ahmed (Urdu pronunciation: [ɾɪzˌwɑːn ˈɛɦˌməd̪]; born (1982-12-01)1 December 1982) is a British actor and rapper.

For starring as a young man accused of murder in the HBO miniseries The Night Of (2016), Ahmed won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series.

He produced, co-wrote, and starred in Mogul Mowgli (2020), which earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film.

As a rapper, Ahmed is a member of the Swet Shop Boys, and has earned critical acclaim with the hip hop albums Microscope and Cashmere, and commercial success featuring in the Billboard 200 chart-topping Hamilton Mixtape, with his song "Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)" winning an MTV Video Music Award.

As an activist, Ahmed is known for his political rap music, has been involved in raising awareness and funds for Rohingya and Syrian refugee children, and has advocated ‘BAME’ representation at the House of Commons.

Ahmed was born on 1 December 1982[2] in Wembley, a suburb in the London Borough of Brent, to a British-Pakistani family of Muhajir background.

[3] Ahmed's father is a shipping broker,[5] and he is a descendant of Shah Muhammad Sulaiman, the first Muslim Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court during British colonial rule in India.

Ahmed then portrayed Riq in the five-part horror thriller Dead Set for E4 and Manesh Kunzru in ITV1's Wired in 2008.

Ahmed plays a charismatic young drug dealer in the film which sees a life in the day of this character.

He assumed the lead role in Mira Nair's adaptation of the best-selling novel by Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, alongside Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, and Liev Schreiber.

[12] Ahmed is also known for his stage performances such as in the Asian Dub Foundation opera Gaddafi and a starring role as psychotic serial-killer-turned-born-again-Christian Lucius in the Lighthouse Theatre's acclaimed production of Stephen Adly Guirgis's Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train (directed by Jack William Clift and Thomas Sweatman) as well as in Shan Khan's Prayer Room.

[17] The British actor was attending a friend's wedding in Los Angeles, when his talent agent suggested he meet Gilroy to discuss the film's script.

[24] In 2016, Ahmed played the role of Nasir "Naz" Khan in the HBO miniseries The Night Of,[25] and once again received universal praise for his performance, earning him Emmy,[26] Golden Globe[27] and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

[39] Following his mixtape under the same name, Ahmed's Englistan, an original TV series was commissioned by BBC Two and Left Handed Films in 2018.

[46] Starring in the main role as a British-Pakistani rapper, The Guardian film critic Wendy Ide praised his "blistering performance" on screen.

[47] In August 2021, Ahmed was named as head of the Platform Prize jury for the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.

[48] In November 2021, Ahmed was announced as a recipient of the Richard Harris Award, which is given to an actor or actress who has "contributed significantly to British films throughout their career".

In November 2023 Riz Ahmed and his company Left Handed Films joined the 2023 SXSW audience award winner Mustache.

[55] In 2006, Ahmed recorded a satirical social-commentary rap track entitled "Post 9/11 Blues", which he wrote after being detained in Luton.

[52] The song was initially banned from British airplay because the lyrics were deemed "politically sensitive", including satirical references to 9/11, terrorism, the post-9/11 climate, Iraq War, death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the MI6, and Belmarsh prison.

[60] From Microscope, he released "Sour Times" which was accompanied by a video featuring Scroobius Pip, Plan B, Tom Hardy,[61] and Jim Sturgess.

[69] In 2018, Sadia Habib and Shaf Choudry, two researchers in the UK, were inspired by Ahmed to determine a method to quantify the nature of Muslim representation in film and TV.

[71] The test came about following a speech given by Ahmed in 2017 at the House of Commons, in which he addressed what he views as a lack of diversity in film and television.

[77][78] As an activist, he has been involved in raising funds for Syrian refugee children and advocating representation at the House of Commons.

[81][82] In 2016, he contributed an essay on racial profiling at airports, auditions and the implicit need to leave himself at a door to be waved through for the anthology The Good Immigrant.