Riz Ahmed has a rare ability to make any space feel cinematic. In a recent interview with Collider, the Oscar-winning actor spoke from a New York hotel lobby, where even muted décor was transformed by his presence and the flash of a lime-green sweater. Calm, attentive, and quietly magnetic, Ahmed seemed worlds away from the relentless pace of his schedule: the Tribeca debut of his new thriller Relay, a role in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, and a modern Hamlet retelling set to premiere at TIFF.
When asked about his upcoming collaboration with Alejandro G. Iñárritu alongside Tom Cruise, Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, and Michael Stuhlbarg, Ahmed couldn’t hide his excitement. “I can’t really share much, other than to say the whole cast are just incredible,” he said. “I hugely enjoyed working with them. I think it’s something quite special, and definitely very different.”
For Ahmed, acting wasn’t an obvious path. Growing up in Wembley as the son of British-Pakistani parents, he rarely saw himself reflected on screen. At Oxford, the cultural isolation deepened his doubts, until a friend encouraged him to apply for drama school. Accepted into the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, he nearly had to turn it down due to financial strain, until theatre producer Thelma Holt stepped in to raise the remaining funds. Ahmed still describes it as a “fairy godmother” moment.
Ahmed’s early career unfolded in politically charged projects like The Road to Guantánamo, Four Lions, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. While often labeled political, Ahmed insists he was always chasing stories about characters, not headlines. “Some lives are automatically viewed as political, while others are just taken as life stories,” he reflected. For him, great storytelling is inherently disruptive, it challenges assumptions, builds empathy, and allows audiences to see themselves in people they once thought they had nothing in common with.
That philosophy carried into his breakout in HBO’s The Night Of, where his performance as Nasir Khan earned him an Emmy and his first major American spotlight. A lesson from co-star John Turturro still guides him: “The only competition in acting is with yourself, to see how deep you can dig, how far you can go.”
Ahmed’s latest project, Relay, directed by David Mackenzie, reflects that ethos. In the film, he plays a mysterious fixer who speaks almost no dialogue for the first half hour, relying on presence and silence to drive the story. The role was shaped over years of collaboration with Mackenzie, including a pivotal monologue at an AA meeting, a scene Ahmed says was inspired by real experiences of isolation. His chemistry with co-star Lily James gives the thriller a quiet emotional core, even as questions of trust and betrayal loom.
For Ahmed, it’s the kind of story he gravitates toward, a twist on the familiar that demands audiences lean in. “I feel grateful to be able to do what I love,” says Ahmed “Stories that are fresh and a little bit different, that’s what I’ve always been drawn to. That’s what gives me a buzz.”
And even with an Oscar, an Emmy, and acclaimed performances behind him, Ahmed isn’t looking back. For him, the role of a lifetime is always the one that hasn’t been written yet.
