Riz Ahmed Lands Emmy Nod for Self-Written Bond Show 'Bait'
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- Riz Ahmed earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie for 'Bait,' a self-written six-part series about a former rapper turned actor in north London who is up for the role of James Bond
- Barbara Broccoli personally approved the use of the Bond character in the show after Ahmed pitched her directly, despite agents, Amazon, and others warning she 'never lets anyone do anything like this'
- Bait was shot on a small, scrappy budget as a half-hour, multilingual, genre-bending series; Ahmed said making it felt like hacking through 'a layer cake of high-security safes'
- Ahmed, now 43, sits between Roger Moore and Daniel Craig in age relative to when each took on Bond, and described the show's autobiographical elements including filming in a replica of his childhood Wembley home
- The series drew on real incidents from Ahmed's life, including a panic attack he suffered while opening for Wu-Tang Clan at the Kentish Town Forum after the headliners were two-and-a-half hours late
- Following 'Bait,' Ahmed immediately began shooting Alejandro González Iñárritu's secretive 'Digger,' and is currently filming Mark Wahlberg thriller 'The Big Fix' in Malaysia with Baltasar Kormákur
Why it matters: Ahmed's Emmy nod validates a high-risk creative swing — a personal, multilingual, half-hour drama built around a franchise whose rights holders almost never grant permission — that Broccoli personally unlocked. For an actor who once spent his last £1,000 on a single audition, the recognition marks a rare collision of artistic vulnerability and industry gatekeeping win.
