Over the last decade or so, Riz Ahmed has become an actor who was reason enough to give a film or a TV series a look.

Also a rapper, Ahmed won the Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a limited series or movie for his work in the excellent 2016 HBO miniseries “The Night Of” and earned an Academy Award nomination for best actor for the engrossing 2019 drama “Sound of Metal.”

More recently, he helped lift the 2025 flick “Relay” firmly above the mark for what we’d expect from a thriller dropping in theaters in August.

Now comes “Bait,” a solid half-hour comedy series in which he not only stars but also serves as an executive producer and is credited as a co-showrunner (with Ben Karlin).

Debuting with all of the season’s six episodes this week, “Bait” is interested in what a person will do — what they would risk and how they may compromise their integrity and values — for a big prize. In the series, Ahmed portrays a London-based actor of Pakistani background who, desperate to win a big role, suffers an existential crisis.

When we meet Ahmed’s Shah Latif, things appear to be going quite well for him. He seems to be … James Bond?

Dressed to the nines, he coolly takes a drink as an attractive woman holds a gun on him.

“Tell me,” she says, “when it’s just you, all alone, how do you live with yourself? Do you even know who you are?”

He gives a brief, dismissive laugh and pauses for dramatic effect. And keeps pausing.

“Line?” he says. “Sorry, sorry.”

This would be bad enough were Shah filming a Bond movie, but, despite the costumes, elaborate lighting and full crew, he is merely auditioning for the prominent role. He tries to blame this flub — only his latest — on that he’s a Muslim fasting for Ramadan, but the director (Maxine Peake) notes she’s seen him drink apple juice between multiple takes.

Even after suffering further indignity at the studio, Shah makes the first of what will become a series of desperate maneuvers to stay in play for what would be a life-changing gig — and it works, the moment going viral and the idea of someone like him as Bond piquing the public’s interest.

Shah claims that he wants it not just for himself but for his community — imagine a brown Bond — but not everyone’s buying it. However, his brother-like cousin, Zulfi (Guz Khan), is happy to try to capitalize on Shah’s newfound fame as he tries to grow his business, Muba — what he sees as Uber for Muslims.

And his parents, Tahira (Sheeba Chaddha) and Parvez (Sajid Hasan), are varying degrees of supportive.

That not everyone is willing to support someone of his ethnic background in the role becomes clear, though, when a pig’s head is thrown through a window in their home.

That head becomes surprisingly relevant to Shah's inner journey during the season. (Without giving away too many details, let’s just say that in the second episode, Shah is NOT, as it would seem, a guest on a podcast hosted by British actor Sir Patrick Stewart — titled, delightfully, “Sir Chatrick Stewart.”)

With its first three installments directed by Bassam Tariq and its final trio by Tom George, “Bait” plays with different genres — in ways more subtle than some other series have — and explores themes related to family dynamics and race as it plugs along at a nice pace. It doesn’t hurt that these episodes are a little over 20 minutes, not allowing them to overstay their welcome.

Ahmed, who penned the first installment, “Blatant, Not Subtle,” is, unsurprisingly, the show’s greatest asset. Backed by solid work by a handful of other writers, the actor wears all of Shah’s unlikable qualities while still somehow managing to be, well, fairly likable.

A few of the show’s funniest moments come when it seems, almost shockingly, that Shah is taking a genuine interest in others … until you understand his true motivation at one of these instances. (That he shows a fair amount of concern for his family’s well-being at times goes a long way in keeping the viewer from turning on him.)

You do wish for a bit more from the supporting cast as a whole, although Ritu Arya (“The Umbrella Academy”) is charming but complicated as Yasmin, an ex who criticizes Shah and with whom he tries to reconnect in the strong fourth episode, “Loyalty.” Plus, Rafe Spall (“Trying”) hits the mark as a security expert Shah hires.

Seemingly positioned as a limited series, “Bait” concludes with a reasonably satisfying, if predictable, final scene. That said, we wouldn’t mind seeing more of Shah and the gang were the show to greatly pique the public’s interest.

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‘BAIT’

2.5 (out of 4)

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: On Prime Video March 25

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