Riz Ahmed: First Muslim and South-Asian Actor To Win Emmy

Riz Ahmed: First Muslim and South-Asian Actor To Win Emmy
British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed won the Emmy for best actor in a limited series or a television movie on Sunday night for his performance in  The Night Of

Riz Ahmed became the first Muslim as well as the first South-Asian actor, to win an acting Emmy.

The actor came out on top after beating Benedict Cumberbatch from Sherlock: The Lying Detective, Robert De Niro from The Wizard of Lies, Ewan McGregor from Fargo, Geoffrey Rush from Genius and John Turturro from  The Night Of.

This is the first-time for Ahmed to have won an Emmy and the winner thanked his fellow category nominees and Turturro in his acceptance speech, telling his co-star, “It’s been amazing getting to watch you up close, and I share this with you, brother.”

Ahmed’s Nasir Khan, on  The Night Of, is a Pakistani college student who winds up at Rikers Island after becoming involved in a murder investigation.