Riz Ahmed

Rizwan Ahmed, also known as Riz Ahmed or Riz MC, is an MC and actor, born in 1984.

Education

Ridhwaan was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, a boys' independent school in Northwood, Middlesex. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, and trained as an actor at Central School of Speech and Drama. He is of Indian descent, his grandparents coming from India to Britain in the 20th century. His name is of Arabic origin and should be transliterated correctly as Ridhwaan and not Rizwan or Riz.

Music

Ridhwaan Ahmed makes music under the name 'Riz MC'.

He released his first hip-hop single in 2006, Post 9/11 Blues: a controversial satire that was temporarily banned from British airplay due to the politically sensitive lyrics.

He was selected as a BBC Introducing artist in 2007, playing the Glastonbury Festival and the BBC Electric Proms to rave reviews. He opened the Meltdown Festival with seminal Bristol-based trip-hop group Massive Attack at the Royal Festival Hall in 2008, and was appointed Emerging Artist in Residence at the prestigious Southbank Centre in London.

Acting career

*Ahmed played Sohail Waheed in the 2007 Channel 4 drama, Britz.
*He was a member of the Confidential Collective, but he received a scholarship for drama school and left in May 2005.
*He played the part of Shafiq Rasul, a member of the Tipton Three, in Michael Winterbottom's "The Road to Guantanamo", and was detained by British intelligence while returning from its Berlin film premiere.
*A starring role in Shan Khan's "Prayer Room."
*A role in the Asian Dub Foundation opera "Gadaffi."
*A starring role as psychotic serial-killer-turned-born-again-Christian Lucius in Lighthouse Theater's acclaimed production of Stephen Adly Guirgis's "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train" (dir: Jack William Clift & Thomas Sweatman)

External links

*imdb name|id=1981893|name=Riz Ahmed
* [http://www.myspace.com/rizmc Riz MC homepage]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/artists/rizmc/ Riz MC at BBC Maida Vale and Glastonbury]
* [http://www.confidentialcollective.com/ Confidential Collective]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/08/24/btprayer24.xml A short, sharp shock of a play] "The Telegraph"
* [http://www.newstatesman.com/200602270006 When even actors aren't safe] "New Statesman"
* [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1750300,00.html Guardian piece on "Post 9/11 Blues"]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2027938026025033655&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en Google video of "Post 9/11 Blues"]