John Kani (1943 -) is a South African actor, director and playwright.

He was born in New Brighton, South Africa.

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the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.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

He has also received the Avanti Hall of Fame Award from the South African film, television and advertising industries, an M-Net Plum award and a Clio award in New York. Other awards include the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace & Culture Award for the year 2000. He 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.

Kani was voted 51st in the Top 100 Great South Africans (see List of South Africans) in 2004.

Plays

• 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.)

Film and television

• The Wild Geese (1978)
• Marigolds in August (1980)
• Killing Heat (1981)
• The Grass Is Singing (1981)
• Master Harold and The Boys (1985) (TV)
• Saturday Night at the Palace (1987)
• An African Dream (1987)
• Options (1988)
• A Dry White Season (1989)
• Othello (1989) (TV)
• The Native Who Caused All the Trouble (1989)
• An African Dream (1990)
• Sarafina! (1992)
• In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid (1993) (Non-fiction)
• Soweto Green (1995)
• The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
• Kap der Rache (1997) (TV) (German)
• Kini and Adams (1997)
• The Tichborne Claimant (1998)
• Final Solution (2001)