Featured Image Credit: ABC
Topics: TV and Film, Oscars, Celebrity
Jess Hardiman
Oscars viewers have been left in shock after hearing actor Riz Ahmed's 'real' accent, with many not realising until now where he's from.
See if you realised what he really sounds like here:
Ahmed, 40, won his first Oscar last year for Aneil Karia's live-action short film The Long Goodbye, but returned to the stage for 2023 to present the Best Documentary and Live Action Short Film awards - which went to Navalny and An Irish Goodbye, respectively.
After seeing him in action, one viewer tweeted: "Add Riz Ahmed to the list of actors whose real accent I could not have guessed."
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Someone else said: "Aww Riz Ahmed and his lil London accent."
Ahmed is a British actor and rapper, but fans were confused after some of his on-screen roles saw him don a clearly believable American accent.
Even those who knew his background were happy to hear his voice, with one person saying: "This won't mean much to most ppl, but the fact that Riz Ahmed is on the Oscar stage, still sounding like man from North London and hasn't changed his accent at all... salute."
Another added: "Riz Ahmed speaking in his accent is so good. THATS MY BROTHER."
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Many people will know Ahmed from 2019 drama Sound of Metal, in which he played an American drummer called Ruben who loses his hearing.
The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (Ahmed) and Best Supporting Actor (Paul Raci) at the 93rd Academy Awards, where it scooped the awards for Best Sound and Best Film Editing.
Some of the big winners in this year's ceremony include Everything Everywhere All At Once stars Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, who both won their first Oscars for Supporting Actor and Actress.
Quan said: “My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage.
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“They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe this is happening to me – this is the American dream.”
“Thank you so much to the Academy for the honour of a lifetime.”
Accepting her Oscar, Curtis, 64, said: “I know it looks like I am standing up here on my own but I am not. There are hundreds of people and hundreds of people. We just won an Oscar. To my family, my beautiful husband, Christopher Guest, my daughters, Annie and Ruby, my sister Kelly – we just won an Oscar.
“To all of the people who have supported the genre movie’s that I have made for hundreds and hundreds of thousands, we just won an Oscar together.”
Looking up to the sky, the actor – whose parents were Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh - added: “And my mother and father were both nominated for Oscars in different categories, I just won an Oscar.”