Loading amazing content...
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
November 30, 1943
Place of Birth
New Brighton, Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, South Africa
John Kani
0.9 Popularity
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in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.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
7.3
Rafiki (voice)
Mufasa: The Lion King
2024
0.0
Narrator/Self
Beyond the Light Barrier
2023
6.4
Colonel Ulenga
Murder Mystery 2
2023
6.9
Brick (voice)
Seal Team
2021
8.1
T'Chaka (voice)
What If...?
2021
7.4
T'Chaka (archive footage) (uncredited)
Marvel Studios Legends
2021
7.1
Rafiki (voice)
The Lion King
2019
0.0
The Space: Theatre of Survival
2019
6.3
Colonel Ulenga
Murder Mystery
2019
7.4
T'Chaka
Black Panther
2018
Credits
Mufasa: The Lion King
as Rafiki (voice)
2024
7.3
Beyond the Light Barrier
as Narrator/Self
2023
0.0
Murder Mystery 2
as Colonel Ulenga
2023
6.4
Seal Team
as Brick (voice)
2021
6.9
What If...?
as T'Chaka (voice)
2021
8.1
Marvel Studios Legends
as T'Chaka (archive footage) (uncredited)
2021
7.4
The Lion King
as Rafiki (voice)
2019
7.1
The Space: Theatre of Survival
2019
0.0
Murder Mystery
as Colonel Ulenga
2019
6.3
Black Panther
as T'Chaka
2018
7.4
Captain America: Civil War
as King T'Chaka
2016
7.4
1994: The Bloody Miracle
as Narrator
2014
10.0
Jail Caesar
as Marius
2012
6.3
Falls the Shadow: The Life and Times of Athol Fugard
as Self
2012
0.0
How to Steal 2 Million
as Julius Twala Snr.
2011
7.0
Coriolanus
as General Cominius
2011
5.8
White Lion
as Old Gisani
2010
6.4
Nothing But The Truth
as Sipho
2009
0.0
Endgame
as Oliver Tambo
2009
5.8
Wallander
as Max Khulu
2008
7.3
The Bird Can't Fly
as Stone
2008
7.0
Final Solution
as Rev. Peter Lekota
2001
9.5
The Tichborne Claimant
as Bogle
1999
8.0
Kini & Adams
as Ben
1997
6.0
The Ghost and the Darkness
as Samuel
1996
6.8
Silent Witness
as Dr. Phiri
1996
7.5
Soweto Green
as Dr. Curtis
1995
0.0
In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid
as Self
1994
0.0
African Skies
1992
6.0
Sarafina!
as School Principal
1992
6.1
The Native Who Caused All the Trouble
1990
0.0
Othello
as Othello
1989
0.0
A Dry White Season
as Julius
1989
6.6
Options
as Jonas
1989
2.0
🎬
Saturday Night at the Palace
1987
1.0
An African Dream
as Khatana
1987
0.0
🎬
Miss Julie
as John
1986
0.0
'Master Harold'... and the Boys
as Willie
1985
6.5
The Grass Is Singing
as Moses
1981
3.8
🎬
A Sizwe Bansi Workshop
as Himself
1981
0.0
Marigolds in August
as Melton
1980
0.0
Victims of Apartheid
as George O'Brien
1978
0.0
The Wild Geese
as Sgt. Jesse Blake
1978
6.8
Playhouse
as Styles / Buntu
1974
7.0
Sizwe Bansi is Dead
as Styles/Buntu
1974
0.0
Play for Today
as George O'Brien
1970
6.3
The Man in the Mirror
N/A
0.0