​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in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.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.

Filmography

• 2024Mufasa: The Lion King — Rafiki (voice)
• 2023Beyond the Light Barrier — Narrator/Self
• 2023Murder Mystery 2 — Colonel Ulenga
• Marvel Studios Legends — T'Chaka (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 2021Seal Team — Brick (voice)
• What If...? — T'Chaka (voice)
• 2019Murder Mystery — Colonel Ulenga
• 2019The Lion King — Rafiki (voice)
• 2019The Space: Theatre of Survival
• 2018Black Panther — T'Chaka
• 2016Captain America: Civil War — King T'Chaka
• 20141994: The Bloody Miracle — Narrator
• 2012Jail Caesar — Marius
• 2011Coriolanus — General Cominius
• 2011How to Steal 2 Million — Julius Twala Snr.
• 2010White Lion — Old Gisani
• 2009Endgame — Oliver Tambo
• 2009Nothing But The Truth — Sipho, Director, Writer, Original Story
• 2008The Bird Can't Fly — Stone
• Wallander — Max Khulu
• 2001Final Solution — Rev. Peter Lekota
• 1999The Tichborne Claimant — Bogle
• 1997Kini & Adams — Ben
• Silent Witness — Dr. Phiri
• 1996The Ghost and the Darkness — Samuel
• 1995Soweto Green — Dr. Curtis
• African Skies
• 1992Sarafina! — School Principal
• 1990The Native Who Caused All the Trouble
• 1989A Dry White Season — Julius
• 1989Options — Jonas
• 1989Othello — Othello
• 1987An African Dream — Khatana
• 1987Saturday Night at the Palace
• 1986Miss Julie — John
• 1985'Master Harold'... and the Boys — Willie
• 1981The Grass Is Singing — Moses
• 1980Marigolds in August — Melton
• 1978The Wild Geese — Sgt. Jesse Blake
• 1978Victims of Apartheid — George O'Brien
• Playhouse — Styles / Buntu, Writer
• 1974Sizwe Bansi Is Dead — Styles/Buntu, Writer
• Play for Today — George O'Brien
• The Man in the Mirror

Appearances as themselves (3)

• 2012Falls the Shadow: The Life and Times of Athol Fugard — Self
• 1994In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid — Self
• 1981A Sizwe Bansi Workshop — Himself