Riaz Shahid was born in 1927 in Quetta, British India. He comes from a Kashmiri family. He is the father of famous Pakistani film star Shahid Shahid. Shaan was just one year old when his father died. His real name is Sheikh Riaz, but his nickname is Shahid. He was educated at the Islamic College in Lahore, Pakistan. Riaz lives in Lahore where he started his career as a reporter for Chataan newspaper and later joined Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Lail-o-Nihar. He also wrote a novel titled Hazar Dastan.