Known For
Acting
Born
Nov 30, 1943
Place of Birth
New Brighton, Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Credits
47 titles
John Kani
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Bonsile John Kani (born 1943) is a South African actor, director and playwright. He was born in New Brighton, South Africa. Kani joined The Serpent Players (a group of actors whose first performance was in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception. These were followed by the more famous Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island, co-written with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona, in the early 1970s. He also received an Olivier nomination for his role in My Children My Africa! Kani's work has been widely performed around the world, including New York, where he and Winston Ntshona won a Tony Award in 1975 for Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island. These two plays were presented in repertory at the Edison Theatre for a total of 52 performances. Nothing but the Truth (2002) was his debut as sole playwright and was first performed in the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. This play takes place in post-apartheid South Africa and does not concern the conflicts between whites and blacks, but the rift between blacks who stayed in South Africa to fight apartheid, and those who left only to return when the hated regime folded. It won the 2003 Fleur du Cap Awards for best actor and best new South African play. In the same year he was also awarded a special Obie award for his extraordinary contribution to theatre in the USA. Kani is executive trustee of the Market Theatre Foundation, founder and director of the Market Theatre Laboratory and chairman of the National Arts Council of SA. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Kani, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Filmography
Mufasa: The Lion King
Rafiki (voice)
Beyond the Light Barrier
Narrator/Self
Murder Mystery 2
Colonel Ulenga
Seal Team
Brick (voice)
What If...?
T'Chaka (voice)
Marvel Studios Legends
T'Chaka (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Lion King
Rafiki (voice)
The Space: Theatre of Survival
Murder Mystery
Colonel Ulenga
Black Panther
T'Chaka
Captain America: Civil War
King T'Chaka
1994: The Bloody Miracle
Narrator
Jail Caesar
Marius
Falls the Shadow: The Life and Times of Athol Fugard
Self
How to Steal 2 Million
Julius Twala Snr.
Coriolanus
General Cominius
White Lion
Old Gisani
Nothing But The Truth
Sipho
Endgame
Oliver Tambo
Wallander
Max Khulu
The Bird Can't Fly
Stone
Final Solution
Rev. Peter Lekota
The Tichborne Claimant
Bogle
Kini & Adams
Ben
The Ghost and the Darkness
Samuel
Silent Witness
Dr. Phiri
Soweto Green
Dr. Curtis
In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid
Self
African Skies
Sarafina!
School Principal
The Native Who Caused All the Trouble
Othello
Othello
A Dry White Season
Julius
Options
Jonas
Saturday Night at the Palace
An African Dream
Khatana
Miss Julie
John
'Master Harold'... and the Boys
Willie
The Grass Is Singing
Moses
A Sizwe Bansi Workshop
Himself
Marigolds in August
Melton
Victims of Apartheid
George O'Brien
The Wild Geese
Sgt. Jesse Blake
Playhouse
Styles / Buntu
Sizwe Bansi Is Dead
Styles/Buntu
Play for Today
George O'Brien
The Man in the Mirror