Riz Ahmed is a man of many talents, and after starring in a series of dramatic projects, he’ll finally get a chance to make us laugh. The Emmy-winning actor will lead Amazon’s series about a struggling actor, joining forces with Modern Family’s Ben Karlin.
Ahmed will lead the untitled half-hour show about Shah Latif, a struggling actor who finds himself in the middle of an existential crisis while on the cusp of landing the role of a lifetime.
In addition to playing the lead role, Ahmed also created this series, and he’ll serve as its showrunner and executive producer alongside Ben Karlin. Allie Moore, Jake Fuller, and Roopesh Parekh will join them as EPs.
Ahmed said that he wanted to tell this story for a long time because it’s personal, bold, and a lot of fun and added it “feels so good to be writing and creating it now with this incredible team.”
Vernon Sanders, Amazon MGM Studios’ head of television, described Ahmed as a gifted writer, actor, and producer, and said they’ve been energized by his passion for this project.
Ahmed won his first Emmy Award for his lead role in HBO’s limited series The Night Of and went on to appear in Girls and The OA. On the movie side, he received his first Oscar nomination for Sound of Metal.
