
New Brighton, Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, South Africa
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in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.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.

as T'Chaka (voice)

as Dr. Phiri
1996

as George O'Brien
1970

as T'Chaka (voice)
2021

as King T'Chaka
2016

as Rafiki (voice)
2024

as T'Chaka (archive footage) (uncredited)
2021

as Styles / Buntu
1974

as T'Chaka
2018

as Rafiki (voice)
2019

as Max Khulu
2008

as Colonel Ulenga
2019

as Colonel Ulenga
2023
as Colonel Ulenga
2023

as Rafiki (voice)
2024

as Narrator/Self
2023

as Colonel Ulenga
2023

as Brick (voice)
2021

as Rafiki (voice)
2019

2019

as Colonel Ulenga
2019

as T'Chaka
2018

as King T'Chaka
2016

as Narrator
2014

as Marius
2012

as Self
2012

as Julius Twala Snr.
2011

as General Cominius
2011

as Old Gisani
2010

as Sipho
2009

as Oliver Tambo
2009

as Stone
2008

as Rev. Peter Lekota
2001

as Bogle
1999

as Ben
1997

as Samuel
1996

as Dr. Curtis
1995

as Self
1994
as T'Chaka (voice)
2 ep.
Writer