| Rizwan Ahmed | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 December 1982 Wembley, London, England |
| Other names | Riz MC |
| Occupation | Actor, rapper |
| Years active | 2006-present |
| Website | |
| www.rizmc.com | |
Rizwan Ahmed (born 1 December 1982 in Wembley, London), also known as Riz Ahmed, the Rizmeister General, or Riz MC, is a British MC, musician and actor. He is noted for his lead performances in The Road to Guantanamo, Shifty, Britz, and Four Lions.
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Ahmed is a British Pakistani. Ahmed's parents belonged to Karachi in Sindh, Pakistan, before emigrating to the United Kingdom.[1]
Ahmed attended Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood through a scholarship programme. He graduated from Christ Church, Oxford with a degree in PPE and studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Ahmed's film career began in the Michael Winterbottom film The Road to Guantanamo in which he played the part of Shafiq Rasul, a member of the Tipton Three. Coincidentally, he and another actor involved in the film as well as two of the Tipton Three were detained at Luton Airport upon their return from the Berlin Film Festival where the film won a Silver Bear Award.[2] Across his years as an actor he has also featured in various TV roles. He has played Sohail Waheed in the 2007 Channel 4 drama, Britz. 2008 saw him perform as both Riq in the five-part horror thriller for E4, Dead Set and Manesh Kunzru in ITV1's finance fraud drama Wired. In July 2009 in appeared in Freefall alongside Sarah Harding. Most notably, he featured in the title role of the 2009 independent film Shifty by Eran Creevy. Ahmed plays the charismatic young drug dealer in the film which sees a life in the day of this character. He was nominated for Best Actor at the 2008 British Independent Film Awards for this role, alongside Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
Continuing his film career, he featured in the 2009 Sally Potter production of Rage and in 2010, in Chris Morris' satire on terrorism, Four Lions and Neil Marshall's historical thriller Centurion.
Ahmed played a role 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.
In 2006, he released a satirical social-commentary rap track entitled "Post 9/11 Blues". The song was initially banned from British airplay because the lyrics were deemed ‘politically sensitive’. Other tracks he has released include "Sour Times" which was accompanied by a video featuring Scroobius Pip, Plan B and Jim Sturgess.
He was selected as a BBC Introducing artist in 2007, playing the Glastonbury Festival and the BBC Electric Proms. He opened the Meltdown Festival with Bristol-based trip-hop group Massive Attack at the Royal Festival Hall in 2008, and was appointed 'Emerging Artist in Residence' at the Southbank Centre in London. He played at the London Camp for Climate Action in August 2009.
Rizwan also co-founded the Oxford based night Hit & Run, which has since moved to Manchester. Hit & Run has gone on to become one of Manchester's leading underground music events.
He released his debut album MICroscope in 2011.
On 1st December 2011 it was announced that Riz MC had signed to Tru Thoughts, a brighton based independent label[3].
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | The Path to 9/11 | TV film | |
| The Road to Guantanamo | Shafiq | ||
| 2007 | Britz | Sohail Wahid | TV film |
| For Better or Worse | Danny | ||
| 2008 | Dead Set | Riq | TV film |
| Shifty | Shifty | Nominated for Best Actor at the British Independent Film Award Won Best Actor at the Geneva Cinéma Tout Ecran |
|
| 2009 | Freefall | Gary | TV film |
| Rage | Vijay | ||
| 2010 | Four Lions | Omar | |
| Centurion | Tarik | ||
| 2011 | Black Gold | Ali | |
| Ill Manors | TBA | ||
| Trishna | Jay | ||
| 2012 | The Reluctant Fundamentalist | Changez |