Simphiwe Vikilahle, an award-winning playwright, hails from the streets of Kwa-Zakhele in Nelson Mandela Bay. Although he began his career as an actor, Vikilahle discovered his true passion lay in the realm of words, dominating competitions across the bay. His proficiency in theatre manifested through writing and directing, with a pivotal moment being the attendance of a writing workshop conducted by Prof Roy Sergeant.

Notably, Simphiwe garnered recognition at the GM Eastern Cape School's competition, securing the Best Original Script award for "Two Eyes of the Bird" and emerging as the overall winner. His collaboration with director Mark Lloyd of Tap Root Productions resulted in the creation of "The Journey" in 2007, a play performed at The Opera House and later showcased at the Grahamstown Festival and across the Eastern Cape and the North East of England.

In 2011, Simphiwe's play "Eating Our Food" for The Mandela Bay Theatre Complex's one-act plays earned acclaim, reaching the finals and receiving the Best Actor award with a supporting actor nominee. He was commissioned by Twist in the same year to write a story for a Durban-based group in Port Shepston, presented at the Grahamstown Festival. Subsequently, Simphiwe's play "Ghost House" at the 2012 Cape Town Zabalaza Festival received five nominations, with him securing the Best Script award. "The Journey" further triumphed in 2012 at the Zwakala Festival, a national competition in Johannesburg, leading to a one-month season at Market Theatre. Opera House commissioned Vikilahle in 2014 to write "Andiyondoda" ("Not Man Enough") for the Grahamstown Festival. Recently, Opera House enlisted his expertise to train 60 students from 15 different schools in scriptwriting.