Who Is Riz Ahmed's Wife, Fatima Farheen Mirza?

For some fans of handsome British actor Riz Ahmed, the news that the Sound of Metal star got secretly married may be more like the "sound of disappointment." But now that we've ripped that band-aid off, don't you want to know all about it?

In just a few short years, the multi-talented Ahmed has risen the Hollywood ranks and become an influential superstar. As a rapper, he's released tunes with musician HEEMS under the name Swet Shop Boys, and wrote the song "Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)" for The Hamilton Mixtape in 2016. If you've worked with Lin-Manuel Miranda, you're doing something right. As an actor, he's ignited the screen in HBO's thrilling miniseries The Night Of, and in the new film The Sound of Metal, starring as a drummer who loses his hearing. Thrillist called it "one of the best movies of 2020," and his 2021 Golden Globes nomination for the same film doesn't say otherwise.

Yet, fewer people probably know another one of Ahmed's many recent accomplishments: getting married! Yup, in January 2021, Ahmed casually explained he had wed partner Fatima Farheen Mirza, sharing the news on the podcast Grounded with Louis Theroux. Ahmed stated he's stayed put in California over the coronavirus pandemic — and not returning to his hometown of England — as his "wife's family" is there. Who's what!?

Well, now that that's out in the open, here's everything you'd want to know about Riz Ahmed's wife, Fatima Farheen Mirza. 

So, what should you know about Riz Ahmed's wife, Fatima Farheen Mirza? Mirza is a 30-year-old, California-born writer with parents of Indian descent, per Evening Standard, and an impressive writer. Her debut novel, A Place for Us, was an "instant New York Times bestseller" (via Penguin Random House) and the first personally published by... Sarah Jessica Parker!

"The first thing I remember saying was, 'Oh my God, I recognize your voice going back years'," Mirza told The Guardian in 2018 on getting the call from Parker. "Such a surreal moment." Though Mirza started her career as pre-med, per The Evening Standard, her switch to creative writing and attending of the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop clearly worked out. 

Meanwhile, her meet-cute with Ahmed would make for an amazing novel as well! They met in New York while Ahmed was preparing for The Sound of Metal. "She's an amazing novelist," Ahmed said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 14, 2021. "We met so randomly while I was preparing for this role... We both just sat down at the same table and ended up jostling over the same laptop plug point... We struck up a friendship and we reconnected down the line." The same plug point?! Could that be any cuter? 

"It feels good to be married," Ahmed told The Hollywood Reporter. "I think COVID has been a massive accelerator for people... Getting married... felt right and made sense."