Advertisement

Riz Ahmed on His 'Super Intimate' Wedding and the 'Modern Way' He Met Wife Fatima Farheen Mirza

David M. Benett/Getty; Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Riz Ahmed is revealing new details about his recent nuptials and the sweet story behind how he met his wife, Fatima Farheen Mirza.

Earlier this week, while appearing on the Grounded with Louis Theroux podcast, the Sound of Metal actor revealed that he tied the knot "not very long [ago]."

Though Ahmed didn't explain much about his wedding at the time, he later appeared on Wednesday's episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon where he unveiled the identity of his wife and shared that he never meant for his marriage to be a "secret."

"It's a weird one, isn't it? 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? But I never know how much is oversharing," he told host Jimmy Fallon of why he didn't announce the big news.

Ahmed, 38, revealed that he married Mirza, an "amazing novelist" and author of the best-selling book, A Place For Us.

RELATED: Riz Ahmed Reveals He Got Married 'Not Very Long' Ago

The actor said that the pair met "randomly" in New York while he was preparing for his role in Sound of Metal.

"We just both sat down at the same table in a cafe, where we both turned up to write," he explained. "We were both jostling over the same laptop plug points, like a very modern way of meeting."

Ahmed said the two quickly "struck up a friendship" and later "reconnected down the line."

Stefanie Keenan/Getty Riz Ahmed

"But it's weirdly one of the many things about preparing for this role that was so special. It just brought a lot of goodness into my life," he gushed.

RELATED: Riz Ahmed Learned How to Play the Drums in 7 Months for Sound of Metal: I Had to 'Surrender'

The Night Of star, who is originally from England, also shared that the pair tied the knot in a backyard wedding with "hardly anyone there."

"It was kind of interesting doing it with COVID and everything going on, obviously kept it super intimate and socially distant," he said.

The Emmy winner joked that a benefit to keeping the wedding small was that he didn't have "500 aunties around you pinching your cheeks."

"No disrespect to the aunties, but Asian weddings are big. You always got these people crawling out of the woodworks who I think are probably imposters," he teased. "They just smell the kebabs on the street and just wander in."