John Kani

The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is acting, directing and drama. Works named in the authority record are The Lion King. Distinctions recorded are Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, Order of Ikhamanga in Silver and Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

• Honorific Suffix — OBEh • Name — John Kani • Birth Name — Bonisile John Kani • Born — 30 August 1942 • Birthplace — New Brighton, Eastern Cape, South Africa • Occupation — * Actor • author • director • playwright • Years Active — 1965–present • Known for — Sizwe Banzi is Dead; The Island • Awards — Tony Award (1975); Obie Award (2003); SAFTA Lifetime award (2010) • Honours — Order of Ikhamanga in Silver • Children — Atandwa Kani

Kani was born on 30 August 1942 in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. In 1975, after appearing in Athol Fugard's anti-apartheid play Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, which he also co-wrote, in the United States, Kani returned to South Africa. There, he received a phone call saying that his father wanted to see him. On his way there, he was surrounded by police who beat him and left him for dead. His left eye was lost as a result of the incident, and he now wears a prosthesis which is technically a glass eye. His son Atandwa is also an actor, who made his debut on U.S. television on the CW series Life Is Wild, and played a younger version of Kani's character T'Chaka in Black Panther.

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in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.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. Kani also received an Olivier Award 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 (which ran for 159 performances) and The Island. These two plays were presented in repertory at the Edison Theatre for a total of 52 performances. In 1987, Kani played Othello in a performance of William Shakespeare's play of the same name in South Africa, which was still under apartheid. "At least I'll be able to kiss Desdemona without leaving a smudge," he said then. 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 the best actor and best new South African play. In the same year, Kani was also awarded a special Obie Award for his extraordinary contribution to theatre in the United States. Kani is executive trustee of the John Kani Theatre Foundation, founder and director of the John Kani Theatre Laboratory and chairman of the National Arts Council of SA. He starred as T'Chaka in the Marvel Studios blockbusters Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018). The fact that Kani was a Xhosa native speaker led Chadwick Boseman, who played his onscreen son T'Challa, to make that Wakanda's language, and to learn whole scenes in Xhosa, although he had never studied the language before. In 2019, Kani appeared in the Netflix film Murder Mystery where he played Colonel Ulenga. He then voiced Rafiki in The Lion King (the photorealistically animated remake of the Disney animated film). Kani's play Kunene and the King, a co-production for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Fugard Theatre, was staged in the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, in 2019 before transferring back to Cape Town. Kani starred alongside Antony Sher.

• Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972) (co-authored with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona) • The Island (1973) (co-authored with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona) • Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act (co-authored with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona) • My Children My Africa! (actor) • Nothing But the Truth (2002) (sole playwright) • The Tempest (2008) (actor in the role of Caliban, at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town; Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; and tour of Richmond, Leeds, Bath, Nottingham, Sheffield) • Missing (2014) (actor and sole playwright) • Kunene and the King (2019) (actor and playwright) • "Master Harold"...and the Boys, "Sam", Geffen Playhouse (2026)

• Nothing But the Truth (2002)

His recorded language was English. One child is recorded: Atandwa Kani.

John Kani is recorded as having received Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, Order of Ikhamanga in Silver and Officer of the Order of the British Empire.