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• 1 media/5.jpg media/Riz-Ahmed-in-The-Night-Of.jpeg 2017-03-09T23:21:28-08:00 "You don't need to tell me we live in scary times." 12 image_header 2017-03-10T08:32:26-08:00      For eleven years, Riz Ahmed built his insider-outsider star-image on a repertoire of incisive, intellectually sophisticated films and albums dealing with intersections of ethnicity and religion. Through turns subverting Islamic and South Asian stereotypes and emphasizing his diasporic experience, Ahmed embodied a rupture in the “Clash of Civilizations” narrative that exposed the ideological contradictions brought on by post-9/11 cross-Atlantic hysteria. Now that his celebrity status has breached mainstream Hollywood, Ahmed has begun to wield his star power as a platform for activist causes. From championing government-supported diversity and representation in the House of Commons to crowdfunding $150,000 for Syrian refugees, Ahmed has cemented his nationally-oriented and cosmopolitan qualities as an artist, fighting for marginalized populations around the globe. For Ahmed, reconciling the contradictions his public persona manages and resolves means reinvigorating the ideology of multiculturalism for a post-Brexit, post-Drumpf era. “Multiculturalism isn’t just a buzzword, it’s not just something to debate – I am multiculturalism,” he stated in an July 2016 interview with The Guardian. “And so is Nigel Farage, because of his ancestors. We talk about it as if it’s something else, as if it’s a guest that may have overstayed their welcome sitting in the front room, but what we’re talking about is us.”