Riz Ahmed Made History As The First Muslim Nominated For Best Lead Actor At The Oscars

By Ammar Haziq  •  17 Mar 2021 in News

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After almost a hundred years, Riz Ahmed made history as the first Muslim to be nominated for Best Actor at the 2021 Oscar’s for his role in Sound of Metal.

Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim actor to bring home an Academy Award for best supporting actor for Moonlight in 2017 and won the same award for Green Book in 2019.

Before nominated for this year’s Oscar, Riz was also the first Muslim and Asian to win lead acting for 2017’s Emmy when he won Best Lead Actor in a limited series or movie for his role in The Night Of.

The 38-year old actor has appeared in many films such as Rogue One, Nightcrawler, Venom, The Sisters Brothers, Four Lions and the recent Mogul Mowgli, which he co-wrote.

Besides being incredible in all his roles, Riz is also an established rapper and musician, using the name Riz MC. He released his second LP, The Long Goodbye back on 6 March 2020.

In Sound of Metal, Riz Ahmed plays a metal drummer and a recovering addict whose life goes spiralling down after he loses his hearing.

He spent months preparing for the role, picking up drumming and American Sign Language, and going to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

Other than the Oscar, Riz is also nominated for a Golden Globe, SAG Award, Spirit Award and Bafta for his role as Ruben in Sound of Metal.

The film is directed by Darius Marder and premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2019 and was picked up by Amazon Studios for release in November 2020.