Age: 82
male
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in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.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.
Aetherium is a 2025 American epic science fiction film written and directed by Matt Reeves and produced by Zack Snyder and Steven Spielberg. It is the first installment of a two-part film and was distributed by Lionsgate. Set in a dystopian future of 2256, the film's ensemble cast includes Daniela Melchior, Gemma Arterton, Ed Skrein, Djimon Hounsou, Freddie Highmore, Patrick Stewart, Sam Neill, John Kani, Angela Bassett, Jamie Dornan, Maribel Verdú, Charlie Hunnam, Josh Brolin, and Anthony Hopkins. In the film, Serana Tomalla (Melchior), a gunslinging adventurer and the outcast daughter of Emperor Vitruvius (Brolin), is forced to confront her family and the heritage she rightfully abandoned in order to save her people from her father's oppression. Aetherium had its world premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on October 28th, 2025, and was released in theaters on November 11th; it became the highest-grossing film of 2025, earning $2.86 billion worldwide against a break-even point of $291 million. The film received universal acclaim with critics and audiences raving the groundbreaking visual effects, story, futuristic setting, the style, Hans Zimmer's musical score, performances (particularly Melchior and Hopkins), and the motivating ending. Among its accolades, it won a Golden Globe Award for Best Visual Effects and a Saturn Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. A sequel entitled Aetherium: A Child Of God is in development.
