Riz Ahmed is opening up about the decade-long road to bringing his Prime Video series Bait to the screen, calling it the most vulnerable and personal project of his career.
Ahmed created, wrote, executive produced and stars in the six-episode comedy as Shah Latif, a struggling British Pakistani actor whose life spirals after word leaks that he’s in contention to play the next James Bond.
Ahmed said fear played a significant role in the years-long delay before the show finally came together, admitting he sometimes found himself sabotaging the process because the material felt so exposing.
He described the show’s central tension as the gap between a person’s public and private selves, something he said carries real emotional weight.
“That gap between those two versions of yourself, someone once told me that’s the amount of shame that you carry. The only way to get through shame is to laugh, right? So it’s an attempt to take the mask off.”
The series, which also stars Guz Khan and features Patrick Stewart voicing a surreal, talking-pig-head manifestation of Shah’s inner critic, premiered to strong reviews after debuting at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival ahead of its March streaming release.
Bait has earned Ahmed his third Primetime Emmy nomination, for lead actor in a limited series, part of a wider awards push that includes submissions across 21 categories.
Reflecting on what it would mean if the show became the project that came to define his career, Ahmed said: “If this is the thing that defines me, I’d be happy. Because I think this show itself is hard to define.”
