Bonisile John Kani is a South African actor, director, and playwright. John Kani was born in New Brighton, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Kani joined The Serpent Players, a group of actors whose first performance was in the former snake pit of the zoo, in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception. 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.

As a sole playwright, Nothing but the Truth was his debut and was first performed in the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. His recent project includes the film The Lion King.