British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed has revealed that he is married. While initially, the actor did not share the name or details about his wife, he later revealed that he married US novelist Fatima Farheen Mirza, who is a New York Times best-selling author whose books include A Place for Us.
Speaking on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Ahmed shared how he met Mirza in New York while preparing for his latest film.
“She’s an amazing novelist. We met so randomly while I was preparing for this role, for Sound Of Metal when I was in New York,” said the 38-year-old actor. “We both sat down at the same table in the cafe where we both turned up to write. We were both jostling over the same laptop plug points, like a very modern way of meeting.”
“And we struck up a friendship and reconnected down the line. But it’s weirdly like one of the many things about preparing for this role that was so special, it just brought a lot of goodness into my life,” he continued.
“Obviously I met Fatima for the first time and met so many people in the deaf community that have become friends. There’s just something about this whole period around this film that was kind of life-changing,” he added.
Ahmed had first revealed that he was married during a BBC podcast Grounded With Louis Theroux. In the podcast, the actor had shared that he hadn’t been married for “very long” and is currently residing in North California because that’s where his wife’s family is from.
“I think it’s the first time I’ve ever mentioned it in an interview,” Riz had said. “So, congratulations on this incredibly exciting scoop.”
“I don’t really feel it’s generally that relevant [his private life], so I don’t delve into my personal life or dating history. I guess I don’t feel like it’s that necessary to go, ‘Hey, here’s everything that’s happening in my life’,” he added.
Ahmed recently won the Best Actor award at the Gotham Awards for his performance in Sound Of Metal. In his acceptance speech, Riz paid a rich tribute to the late Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan, by quoting a lesson Khan gave to his son Babil.
“Surrender to the dance of uncertainty. It feels like a wobbly time. If we can wobble together we may find each other dancing,” said Riz, quoting Khan.
