Riz Ahmed makes the wish to be accepted look awkward, funny and worth caring about. Bait gives his vulnerability room to become comedy, and we would happily see more of him being this unreasonable.
Fi1m perspective
Riz Ahmed lets Shah Latif look needy. In Bait (2026), he plays a struggling Muslim actor auditioning for James Bond, and makes the wish to win everyone’s approval embarrassing without losing our sympathy. It is a funny, uncomfortable performance, and the clearest reason we recommend the series despite its thinly written supporting relationships. We felt for Shah because an audition kept becoming a test of his right to belong, with his ability to do the job pushed aside.
The early satire of Four Lions (2010) was followed by American work in Nightcrawler (2014) and a dramatic lead in The Night Of (2016). In Sound of Metal (2020), he handles demanding physical and emotional changes with restraint. Across those shifts, he has repeatedly played men under pressure to fit somebody else’s expectations. Since 2020, he has combined acting with writing and producing on personal projects, including Mogul Mowgli (2020) and Bait.
The family scenes in Bait show how much Ahmed gains from being part of a comic ensemble. Guz Khan’s Zulfi gives him somebody to react to, and the comedy is livelier here than in the industry satire. Ahmed allows Shah to be foolish; he does not protect him by making him the only sensible person present. The writing, to which Ahmed contributes, is less generous to some of the other characters, whose underdeveloped relationships limit what they can tell us about Shah.
The Phoenician Scheme (2025) offers a useful caution about casting him without giving him much room. As Prince Farouk in Wes Anderson’s sequence of business encounters, Ahmed gets a place in the itinerary, but little opportunity for a person to emerge. Editor Barney Pilling keeps those visits brisk; the repeated arrival, negotiation and departure still become tiring. We would be wary of judging what Ahmed can do from so brief an appearance.
We would start with Bait for the actor who can make us care about somebody behaving badly. Our reservations about the supporting roles matter more because Ahmed is helping to write them. His next script could afford to give the people around him more to do.
Biography
Riz Ahmed is a British actor and rapper, also credited as Riz MC. Born on 1 December 1982 in Wembley, London, he trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Ahmed began his screen career in independent films such as The Road to Guantanamo (2006), Shifty (2008), Four Lions (2010) and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012). His profile rose with Nightcrawler (2014), followed by roles in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Jason Bourne (2016), Venom (2018) and Sound of Metal (2020). He won a Primetime Emmy Award for his lead performance in the miniseries The Night Of (2016).
Ahmed created, wrote and stars as Shah Latif in the series Bait (2026). He appears as Prince Farouk in the film The Phoenician Scheme (2025). He is a member of the hip-hop duo Swet Shop Boys.
