Riz Ahmed’s ‘Bait’ 21 Category Emmys Submissions

Amazon is putting out some “Bait” to hook Emmy voters.

The streamer’s British six-part miniseries “Bait,” starring Riz Ahmed, is making a push for the Emmy season, with plans to submit in 21 categories, including outstanding limited or anthology series, Variety has learned exclusively.

“Bait” follows Shah Latif (Ahmed), a struggling British Pakistani actor navigating an existential crisis while auditioning for the role of James Bond amid cultural backlash, skilled pressure and strained family relationships. The Prime Video series, which premiered globally on March 25 after debuting earlier this 12 months on the Sundance Film Festival, has received positive reviews from critics and currently sits at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.

On the Emmy front, “Bait” will mount a wide-ranging campaign spanning major series and craft categories.

Ahmed, an Oscar winner for producing the live-action short “The Long Goodbye” (2021) and a best actor nominee for the extreme drama “Sound of Metal” (2020), has established himself as a multi-hyphenate across film, television and theater. On the Emmys in 2017, he made history as the primary South Asian and Muslim man to win an acting Emmy for his role as Nasir Khan in HBO’s miniseries “The Night Of.” That very same 12 months, he earned a second nom in guest actor for HBO’s comedy “Girls.” He’ll be an enormous focus for the campaign, going for an additional nomination for lead actor (limited).

Guz Khan, who portrays Shah’s cousin Zulfi, will probably be submitted for supporting actor (limited), while Sheeba Chaddha, who plays Tahira, will vie for supporting actress. Actors may self-submit for Emmy consideration, and lots of final selections regarding episode submissions for artisans is not going to be fully known until nomination voting begins in June.

Director Bassam Tariq will put forth episode 3, titled “House or Home,” which will even serve because the official writing submission for author Azam Mahmood.

Together with Ahmed, the series’ executive producers are Allie Moore, Ben Karlin and Jake Fuller, with Chris Sheriff, Karen Joseph Adcock, Dipika Guha, Prashanth Venkataramanujam and Azam Mahmood serving as producers.

This 12 months’s Emmy timeline begins with nomination-round voting from June 11-22, followed by nominations on July 8.

The complete list of Emmy submissions for “Bait” is below:

All six episodes of “Bait” at the moment are streaming on Amazon Prime Video.