KARACHI: British-Pakistan actor Riz Ahmed made history on Sunday night by becoming the first male actor of Asian descent to win an Emmy for acting.

Ahmed was nominated for his role in HBO’s The Night Of, an eight-episode crime drama where he portrays Nasir Naz Khan, a young Pakistani college student who gets caught in the middle of a murder investigation and sent to Rikers Island Prison Complex after a night of partying.

In his acceptance speech, the 34-year-old South Asian highlighted the importance of the Innocence Project and the New York-based South Asian Youth Action organisation.

Pakistani-American comedian Kumail Nanjiani, who just released his first feature film The Big Sick, tweeted a photograph with Ahmed, captioned: “Last known picture of Riz Ahmed (@rizmc) before he was an Emmy winner.”

The British-Pakistani actor has worked in independent films such as The Road to Guantanamo, Four Lions and Mohsin Hamid’s Reluctant Fundamentalist — his breakout role was in 2014’s Nightcrawler with Jake Gyllenhaal.

Ahmed has also starred in Una, Jason Bourne and the first Star Wars anthology film, Rogue One.

Also known as Rizmc, the actor is a rapper and member of the Swet Shop Boys and has earned critical acclaim for two hip-hop albums.

This year, he was also included in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world with an introduction by American composer, playwright and creator of Broadway’s Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The two men have also collaborated on a song called Immigrants (We get the job done) as a musical counterweight to the US political debate on immigration.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2017