Katlego Kai Kolanyane-Kesupile (born January 1988, also known as Kat Kai Kol-Kes) is a performance artist, musician, writer and LGBT activist from Botswana. She is known for being the first public figure from the country to openly identify as a transgender person. She is also the first person from Botswana to be named a TED Fellow.

Kolanyane-Kesupile was born in January 1988 in Francistown.^[1][2] She is the first transgender person to come out openly in Botswana, which she did in 2013.^[3][4][5] Kolanyane-Kesupile attended Clifton Primary School.^[2] She went to a boarding school in Durban when she was eighteen.^[5] Kolanyane-Kesupile received a bachelor's degree in theater from the University of the Witwatersrand and earned a master's degree in Human Rights, Culture and Social Justice from Goldsmiths, University of London.^[6][3] She became a Chevening Scholar in 2016.^[3]

Kolanyane-Kesupile is the founder of the Queer Shorts Showcase Festival,^[7] which is the first and only LGBT themed theater festival in Botswana.^[8][9] She has written for Peolwane Magazine, The Kalahari Review, The Washington Blade and AfroPUNK.com.^[10] Kolanyane-Kesupile also plays with a band, Chasing Jakyb.^[11] She writes songs for the group in both English and Setswana.^[11] The group released an album, Bongo Country, in 2015.^[12]

Kolanyane-Kesupile was a 2013/2014 Best of Botswana honoree in the Performing Arts category.^[10] She was named a Highly Commended Runner Up for the 2015 Queen's Young Leaders Awards.^[13] She was named a TED Global Fellow in 2017 and was the first Motswana to earn this distinction.^[14][15] In 2018, she was featured in the OkayAfrica 100 Women list.^[15]