‘I met Riz Ahmed 20 years ago in a dark alley – now look at us’

Over the past decade, Guz Khan has forged a mammoth legacy among the West Midlands’ Muslim community – but his reputation doesn’t end there.

‘I was with my nephew,and we were joking about how Man Like Mobeen is the most-watched comedy for mandem in prison all over this country….

Within five minutes, someone was like: “Yo Brother, been watching you in prison.”
‘I’m just happy that the mandem love it [and] that people I wouldn’t have expected to gravitate towards it still love it,’ he recounts to Metro with a fond laugh.

For the uninitiated, the BBC comedy-drama, which launched in 2017, followed the titular Mo, a Brummie Muslim trying to stay on the right side of the law and his faith while single-handedly raising his little sister – to varying levels of success.

The Bafta-nominated hit came to a climactic end last year after five seasons, marking the end of an era for the Coventry-born teacher-turned-comedian.

Although it sounds as though it was time.

‘[Before] the fifth season, the BBC was like: “So what’s going to be happening?” I was like: “I don’t really know, bro, I’m kind of out of ideas, but we’ll make it work.””
And make it work, he did.

Whether Mobeen and co will be back on screens again anytime soon, however, is another matter entirely.

‘I was literally just on the phone with Tolu [Ogunmefun] and Salman [Akhtar] and Perry [Fitzpatrick] this week.

We’re all still really good mates.

Whether we make more, whether we’re 50 and do a special in the future, I made it for the people,’ he happily declares.

The father-of-five’s Man Like Mobeen days may be behind him, but the quest he started all those years ago – to represent the areas he grew up in – continues, this time through his new Amazon Prime thriller, Bait.

In the show, Riz Ahmed plays struggling actor Shah Latif, whose life is turned upside down when he’s spotted leaving a James Bond audition.

Honing in on the British Pakistani Muslim community, the show is packed with deep-cut cultural references.

(Case in point: Guz and I spend a two-minute interlude discussing the accuracy of Shah’s dad Parvez playing Pakistani news channel Geo News on loop).

The TV star plays Zulfi, Shah’s cousin (really, his brother), who runs a community-based taxi company.

His second full-time job is reminding Shah of his roots.

‘Sometimes it takes Riz to write you a role after you met him 20 years ago in a dark alley.

‘Zulfi being constantly in Shah’s ear saying: “don’t forget where you’re from, who you represent”, that’s something that I constantly say to myself all the time.

‘People are like: “What would you like to do next?

Do you have any aspirations?”
‘If I can get to the end of my run of this life, having represented Cov, Brum, Wolverhampton, these kinds of areas where we grew up in [a way] where people still see themselves, where people are proud, that’s all that really matters to me.

‘Zulfi is a reflection of that, so hopefully that resonates.’
How did Riz manage to conjure up such a note-perfect role for Guz?

Well, the pair go way back!

Twenty years, to be exact, when they serendipitously crossed paths at Coventry University student union, still two no-names.

‘It was a complete accident, and look how things worked out,’ he jokes.

In a twisty tale, he explains he and his friend were lurking in a notorious alleyway when ‘future Oscar winner, Emmy-nominated Riz Ahmed’ rocks up and ‘slightly nervously invited us to come’ to his gig.

‘I knew, as soon as we were in that moment, I was like: “Okay, we got something special”, because our family setups, our vernacular is everything.’
He recounts: ‘We went to the student union.

There were six of us, including me, in the room, and the two security guys, whom we knew as well.

‘We watched this guy on a tiny, little speaker perform in front of that many people.

[It] did not go well, went terribly, but don’t ever underestimate what someone’s capable of or where they’re headed, because look [where he is] now.’
To work together on this project so many years later – both trailblazers for South Asian representation in their craft – feels like a full circle moment.

‘I think the community, the streets, really appreciate the fact that it’s very rare that two people come together who have some similar leanings in their lives,’ he reflects.

Later adding: ‘Sometimes it takes Riz to write you a role after you met him 20 years ago in a dark alley, and he has to tell you at the back of a Los Angeles “gullyway” after a gig… Life’s crazy.

What’s written for you is written for you.’
Beyond Riz, Guz has soaked in the wisdom of the talented cast around him, and it was during filming one of the fast-paced family scenes that he realised how truly ‘special’ this show would be.

He says: ‘That scene with the family with Sheeba, Aasiya and Sajid [released six weeks ago] was scripted, but a lot of stuff you hear in there was people throwing that in and improvising.

Oh, my God, there’s no downtime.

Five kids, a wife who thinks her husband is useless, a house full of nieces, nephews, my mom, and my friends.

As for tackling Bond as a British institution, the dashing MI6 agent will have to do more to win Guz over – although he has one man for the job.

‘I just regard myself as a guy that might watch that movie.

I’ve got no aspirations to be in it.

It’s not my wheelhouse.

‘There’s so many talented British actors that could play this role.

You’ve got this guy [Riz] who you muck about with cussing each other on what’s up and sometimes it’s surreal for me, because I’m like: “He could be James Bond”.’
Unapologetic in representing the South Asian diaspora community in all its messy glory, I ask if, amid the current political climate, he hopes shows like this can prove ‘we’re not going anywhere’.

‘He asked me: “You know the flag, does that do your head in?” [and] I was like: “Nah, bro, fly all the [flags] you want.

Be proud of your country.

Be patriotic if that’s how you feel”.

‘But obviously, with all this stuff, it’s layered.

This is the UK.

Do what you want.

It’s when that thing is being used to be like: “Hey, you’re not welcome”.

‘I have conversations with people, and you find very quickly that stuff someone’s furiously reading on X, they think the world is all this way, right.

They chat to you, me, my mom, some uncle, some auntie, that’s all it takes, really, to get people to see things from a different perspective,’ he says.

Between his comedy gigs, TV shows and perspective-shedding conversations, what does he like to do in his downtime?

‘Oh, my God, there’s no downtime,’ he responds without hesitation.

‘Five kids, a wife who thinks her husband is useless, a house full of nieces, nephews, my mom, and my friends.

This [conversation] is downtime.

Thank you, Asyia, for sharing this very gentle and structured moment.

My life is pagl (crazy).’
Bait is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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