Cody Lightning

{{Short description|Cree actor and filmmaker}}

{{BLP sources|date=March 2022}}

Cody Lightning (born August 8, 1986) is a Cree actor and filmmaker from Edmonton, Treaty 6, Alberta, Canada.Kerry Benjoe, "Indigenous film world filled with people passionate about their art". Regina Leader-Post, December 12, 2015. He is the son of film director and actress Georgina Lightning and brother of actors Crystle Lightning and William Lightning. He was a Young Artist Award nominee in 1999 for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor, for Smoke Signals (1998), and won the American Indian Film Festival award for Best Actor in 2007 for Four Sheets to the Wind.

In 2023 he wrote, directed and starred in his directorial debut film Hey, Viktor!, a mockumentary in which a fictionalized version of himself struggles to reestablish his faded career as an actor by creating his own sequel to Smoke Signals.Gary M. Kramer, [https://www.salon.com/2023/06/12/hey-viktor-cody-lightning-smoke-signals/ "'We need to laugh': 'Hey, Viktor' is a much-needed send-up of Native dysfunction and Hollywood"]. Salon, June 12, 2023. In 2024 he received two Canadian Screen Award nominations for his work on the film, for Best Lead Performance in a Comedy Film and Best Original Screenplay, at the 12th Canadian Screen Awards.[https://www.northernstars.ca/blackberry-leads-csa-nominations/ "BlackBerry Leads CSA Nominations"]. Northern Stars, March 6, 2024.