Whether you fell for Riz Ahmed as an eager assistant in 2014’s Nightcrawler, the surf instructor who changed Hannah’s life on Girls or as the metal drummer who goes deaf in 2020’s Oscar-nominated Sound of Metal, the English actor is now officially off the market. He confirmed he married author Fatima Farheen Mirza during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in January 2021 — but who is his bride? Here’s what we know.
Fatima Is a Successful Author
Riz’s wife, 30, is originally from California and graduated from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She published her first novel, A Place For Us, in 2018. The book was an “instant New York Times bestseller,” according to Fatima’s website.
Riz and Fatima Met a While Back
The 38-year-old told English documentarian Louis Theroux the adorable meet-cute story from when Riz was working on his film Sound of Metal.
“We just both sat down at the same table in a café where we both turned up to write,” he explained on the filmmaker’s “Grounded” podcast in January 2021. “We were both jostling over the same laptop plug point. It’s like a very modern way of meeting.” The performer added, “We struck up a friendship, and then we reconnected down the line.”
They Got Married With Safety Precautions
Though he didn’t reveal where or when the nuptials took place, the Night Of actor did explain how the ceremony adhered to safety guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We obviously kept it super intimate and socially distanced, hardly anyone there,” Riz revealed about his wedding on the podcast. “We did it in a backyard, which was nice in lots of ways. I think the nicest thing about it was you didn’t have 500 aunties hanging around you, pinching your cheeks. No disrespect to the aunties, but Asian weddings are big.”
The Couple Didn’t Intentionally Keep Their Wedding Secret
The Emmy award winner also noted he didn’t specifically seek out to keep the milestone from fans and followers. “I guess because we live in a social media age, if you don’t get on the megaphone about stuff, it’s like it’s a secret,” Riz said. “I never know how much is oversharing. Like, I’m into matcha lattes, but that’s just never come up. I’m not a secret matcha latte drinker — do you know what I mean?”