Riz Ahmed's Amazon Prime struggling actor comedy shooting in London
- Riz Ahmed's first role in a narrative television comedy to be filmed in Britain will shoot in London this summer
- The currently untitled series will see the Four Lions star playing a struggling actor on the cusp of landing the role of a lifetime, only to find himself thrust into a existential breakdown and trippy conspiracy thriller all at the same time
- "I've wanted to tell this story for a long time. It's personal, bold, and a lot of fun. It feels so good to be writing and creating it now with this incredible team," said Ahmed
Riz Ahmed's new comedy drama for Amazon Prime about an actor having a quarter-life crisis will shoot in London this summer, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
The currently untitled half-hour series will see the Four Lions star write, produce and star, playing Shah Latif, a struggling actor on the cusp of landing the role of a lifetime, only to find himself thrust into a full blown existential breakdown and trippy conspiracy thriller all at the same time.
The series marks Ahmed, who won an Oscar in 2022 for the short film The Long Goodbye, having been nominated the previous year for the feature Sound Of Metal, returning to television for the first time since 2017, when he was Emmy-nominated for his guest role in Lena Dunham's comedy Girls, and won an Emmy for his leading role in murder drama The Night Of. It is also his first screen role in a narrative television comedy made in Britain, though he created and wrote the 2011 E4 pilot Kabadasses.
Ben Karlin, whose credits include Modern Family and The Daily Show, is attached to executive produce and showrun the series with Ahmed for Jax Media (Everyone Else Burns), the first project in a deal struck between Amazon MGM Studios and Ahmed's Left Handed Films three years ago.
"I've wanted to tell this story for a long time. It's personal, bold, and a lot of fun. It feels so good to be writing and creating it now with this incredible team," said Ahmed, who leads a writers team that also includes Dipika Guha (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Prashanth Venkataramanujam, creator of the Netflix talk show Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj, Karen Joseph Adcock (The Bear), Azam Mahmood (Ramy), and novelist Fatima Farheen Mirza.
The series is executive produced by Allie Moore and Ahmed for Left Handed, with Jake Fuller on behalf of Jax Media, alongside Karlin and Roopesh Parekh.
"Riz Ahmed is a gifted writer, actor, and producer, and we have been energized by his passion," added Vernon Sanders, head of television for Amazon MGM Studios. "Led by Riz and the hilarious Ben Karlin, and guided by Rola Bauer's Pan-English team, this series is sure to delight our global Prime Video customers and make them laugh."