Riz Ahmed Melts Hearts at Oscars 2021 Red Carpet for This Moment With His Wife Fatima Farheen Mirza

Sound of Metal star Riz Ahmed melted hearts on Twitter Sunday night when he was caught on camera helping to fix his wife Fatima Farheen Mirza’s hair on the Oscars red carpet. Ahmed, 38, was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Sound of Metal, in which he plays a heavy metal drummer who loses his hearing. He married Mirza, the author of the bestselling book A Place For Us, in 2020.

When Ahmed and Mirza reached the photographers on the red carpet, Ahmed asked them to pause so he could do some quick work on Mirza hair. “I’m the official groomer for the evening,” he joked before posing with Mirza. The actor and the photographers all laughed as they posed for pictures. Variety’s video of the scene quickly went viral on Twitter, with many noting how adorable Ahmed’s actions were.

“Too cute. I think I’m dead,” one person wrote. “These are actually the two most gorgeous people I have ever seen in my life oh my god,” another tweeted. “This is not the first time I’ve had the thought ‘I want to be Riz Ahmed’s wife’ and it’s definitely not gonna be the last,” another wrote. “Is this the cutest thing ever or is my bar just really low?” one Twitter user wondered.

Ahmed revealed he was married during an episode of Louis Theroux’s podcast Grounded, but it was not until he stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that he revealed he was married to Mirza. The two met when he was preparing for Sound of Metal in New York. “She’s an amazing novelist. We met so randomly while I was preparing for this role, for Sound Of Metal when I was in New York,” Ahmed explained. “We both sat down at the same table in the cafe where we both turned up to write. We were both jostling over the same laptop plug points, like a very modern way of meeting.”

The two became quick friends and they later reconnected. “But it’s weirdly like one of the many things about preparing for this role that was so special, it just brought a lot of goodness into my life,” the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story star said. “Obviously I met Fatima for the first time and met so many people in the deaf community that has become friends. There’s just something about this whole period around this film that was kind of life-changing.”

Sound of Metal was directed by Darius Marder, who was nominated for Best Original Screenplay alongside co-writers Derek Cianfrance and Abraham Marder. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Paul Raci, Best Sound, and Best Film Editing. It is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.