Riz Ahmed has a busy year ahead – book-ending 2026 with two major film releases.
February saw the unveiling of Hamlet, the culmination of an idea from 15 years ago, while October sees the launch of Digger, co-starring Tom Cruise.
In between, Ahmed is scheduled to start work on a Netflix thriller; he also made Bait, showcasing it at Sundance in January, prior to its release on Prime Video.
But the project closest to his heart has been Hamlet; in fact, more than a week after the launch of the latest adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Ahmed was promoting Hamlet on social media. This is rare in today’s entertainment industry where most publicity peaks in the run-up to the release of a film, not afterward.
London-born Ahmed revealed he had the idea to set Hamlet in a British Asian family more than a decade ago.
Ahead of its release, he told the GG2 Power List, “What is Hamlet about? It's about somebody who is caught between his family and his duty, who's torn about whether he should take up arms against his blood relations or just be loyal to them because they're his blood relations.
“That's also the heart of the story of the Gita (the Hindu holy text). And it's interesting, because Shakespeare didn't write a lot of original stories. Hamlet is adapted from an ancient myth, a Nordic myth, from the Scandinavian countries.
“But those that myths also came from somewhere else.”
Ahmed added, “We've got lots of evidence of trade between ancient India and the Vikings. This is drawn from a very old place, this story of Hamlet, so we wanted to join those dots. That's why the first words you hear in our adaptation are the words from the Gita.”
Sitting in a London hotel alongside director Aneil Karia, with whom he worked on the Oscar-winning short, The Long Goodbye, Ahmed explained why his adaptation of Hamlet was suited for a south Asian setting.
“There's so many elements of the original Shakespeare play - it's about spirituality, family, honour, duty, who you can and can't marry. All of these things, they just stop being fantastical, and they start feeling real when you put it in this kind of environment.”
The actor, who grew up in Wembley, lives and works on both sides of the pond. He also (quietly) revealed he has become a father, and filmed for Hamlet in London, while juggling his role as the parent of a newborn.
“I had just become a dad and had a baby at home when we started prep. So, for me, the family element was front of mind,” Ahmed was quoted as saying in production notes by Universal Pictures.
He added, “We haven’t had a cinematic adaptation of Hamlet in English for a long time, but just reviving the play isn’t enough. We wanted to find a way of bringing people to this story who might not feel it’s for them.
“Shakespeare can feel elitist and often this character and play are overly intellectualised, so we made many decisions to try and ground this in the physical and emotional instead - things everyone can connect to.”
Ahmed’s Hamlet got mostly good reviews in the national press, and its screening at the London Film Festival in October 2025 was attended by mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan.
He explained what drew him to Hamlet: “Our writer Mike Lesslie and I have been working on this for 13 years! I have been dreaming of making this since I was 16! So, in all honesty, a timeless story is always going to be timely.
“This story is about feeling that the world is a crazy place, so crazy that you feel like you’re losing your mind. It’s about feeling so frustrated and powerless in the face of that, that we kind of want to burn it all down. And it’s about complicated family dynamics, and in particular the inheritance of wounded and un-tethered masculinity. Everyone has to contend with these things at this moment. But that’s also true across the centuries and across cultures. In a way these feelings have always been about right now.”
Ahmed has been committed to fighting the negative and stereotypical portrayal of Muslim characters in cinema.
He set up Left Handed Films and its projects include a three-part documentary series called Defiance, about the south Asian resistance movement in the UK (2024), produced with Channel 4, Joyland (2022), The Long Goodbye (2020) and Mogul Mowgli (2020).
As well as being an actor and a rapper, Ahmed is vocal about politics, in particular, the rhetoric and debate around refugees and asylum seekers.
In May last year, he and other famous personalities from the entertainment industry, such as Dua Lipa, Benedict Cumberbatch, Annie Lennox and Tilda Swinton, signed an open letter urging Britain to halt arms sales to Israel.
And when Zohran Mamdani won the race to be the mayor of New York City, Ahmed posted, “Trump was right about Zohran causing problems!
“South Asian parents are now like “Mamdani’s son is mayor of New York, and he’s only 34, what have you done with your life?”
“Oh Zohran! What have you done to us, habibi!
“But in all seriousness,
“What he has done,
“At his age,
“I can’t even fathom,
“But I’m just so inspired.”
With one in Hollywood and another in the UK, Ahmed himself is an inspiration to the next generation of south Asian creative talent.
For anyone doubting if Ahmed has “arrived” in Hollywood (despite the Star Wars film and an Emmy), the answer is a resounding yes.
On his eponymous chat show, host Jonathan Ross asked Ahmed if he was on that Christmas cake list from Tom Cruise.
Ahmed said, “It’s a banging cake and I am not even a sponge cake guy, or a coconut cake guy, but that is really special.”
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