Riz Ahmed is one of the most promising British actors of his generation. He’s an actor, rapper, activist, and screenwriter. This year, he also became an Academy Award winner thanks to the short The Long Goodbye that he co-wrote with Aneil Karia.
Ahmed has always been a chameleon, changing from performance to performance and giving his all in different ways. He can be a rich and entitled guy on multi-million-dollar franchises like Jason Bourne or Venom, and he can play intimate character studies like the ones in The Sound of Metal or The Night of. He’s also the rapper, Riz MC. Let’s travel through his filmography and list Riz Ahmed’s best performances, ranked:
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6 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Walt Disney StudiosMotion Pictures
The prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope, this movie is a lot grittier and darker than most Star Wars films, as it tells the story of a group of rebels who try to steal the Death Star’s plans, so the resistance can have some hope and get a fighting chance.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyis probably the movie from where most people would recognize Ahmed (either this or Venom) as he plays the pilot Bodhi Rook. Ahmed gives one of his most strange and unique performances, as his character is missing a screw or two after he gets interrogated by a Mairan (a creature that knows if you tell the truth). Ahmed shows us the ins and outs of his whacky character and why he’s fighting against the Empire.
5 Flee (2021)
Neon
This Oscar-nominated documentary is like no other, and should have won an Academy Award. It tells the story of Amin Nawabi, an academic that remembers his past as a refugee from Afghanistan, who abandoned his country with the start of the Afghan war. The documentary is done through animation, not only of the characters talking to the camera, but also recreating some stories from Amin’s past, showing more of a layered and complex story than simply a documentary about a refugee.
Ahmed does the voice of Amin in Flee, and gives every moment the emotion, tone, and empathy that it deserves. He helps tell this unique story, and with his voice acting, he shows the weight and importance of every situation experienced by Amin Nawabi.
4 Nightcrawler (2014)
Open Road Films
Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a down-on-his-luck petty thief who discovers that shooting footage of crashing cars and crime scenes is a lucrative business. He starts to get pretty good at it. That’s because the only thing that worries this sociopath is himself and the next video he has to sell.
Nightcrawler is one of Jake Gyllenhaal’s best performances and his most deranged character ever. Ahmed can hold his own against him. That’s why this is the role that made Hollywood aware of Ahmed, who plays Bloom’s assistant, Rick. Through him, we see how deranged Bloom is becoming while he still has a soul (and wants to keep it).
3 Mogul Mowgli (2020)
BFI Distribution
This movie tells the story of a British Pakistani rapper who, when it finally looks like he will get everything he ever wanted career-wise, gets an autoimmune disease. That changes everything as Zed (Ahmed) starts to feel absolutely lost. As Ahmed told The New Yorker podcast: “It’s about obstacles within, the internalized self-hate, and the gravitational self-pull of your roots.”
Ahmed not only stars in this movie, but also co-wrote it, and used some of his own lyrics for the character. Zed might not be an autobiographical character, but they share many ideas, experiences, and a love for Islamic art. Mogul Mowgli was one of Ahmed’s more complete performances; you could feel every hurtful moment, all the pain, all he’s losing, and all the emptiness.
2 The Night Of (2016)
HBO
Naz Khan (Ahmed) is a college student from Queens who wakes up after a one-night stand and finds the girl he was with brutally murdered. He gets arrested and tries to survive prison while his lawyer John Stone (John Turturro) tries to prove his innocence.
The Night of is one of the best HBO tv shows of all time, and that’s, in big part, because of Ahmed’s performance as the lead character. Naz starts as a sweet kid, and the longer he’s in prison, the more he gets hardened. Ahmed’s performance is heartbreaking, as he shows the process of losing his humanity and how the penal system is taking away, bit by bit, all the love, hope, and sweetness of this person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even if he’s proven innocent, his life will never be the same.
1 Sound of Metal (2020)
Ruben Stone (Ahmed) is the drummer for a metal band. All of a sudden, he begins experiencing hearing loss, and music; his passion, doesn’t seem like a path anymore. We follow his process, and through the help of other deaf recovering addicts, he understands his new life and adapts.
Sound of Metalis one of the best movies with deaf and hard-hearing characters and Ahmed nails this role. He trained for months in how to play the drums, and learned sign language to be able to show all the struggles the character feels. We understand what the character is going through thanks to every look, every movement, and every conversation. The incredible sound design also helps, as this movie makes you experience hearing loss like no other. The director, Darius Marder, told Indiewire, “Rather than a point of view, I wanted to get inside the audience’s head through a point of hearing”. And that’s what makes this movie as unique as Ahmed’s performance as the lead.
