Kevin Graham Ogilvie (born December 5, 1962), known professionally as Nivek Ogre, is a Canadian musician, performance artist and actor, best known for his work with the industrial music group Skinny Puppy, which he co-founded with cEvin Key.

Ogre's charismatic personality, guttural vocals and use of costumes, props, and fake blood on stage helped widen Skinny Puppy's fanbase[5] and has inspired numerous other musicians.

Ogre has also been involved with several other musicians including the Al Jourgensen bands Ministry and Revolting Cocks, Pigface and Rx with Martin Atkins, and KMFDM.

[10] He described his childhood as "introverted", and that he would take refuge in watching monster movies; he also enjoyed the horror fantasy writings of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.

[13] He has cited the Cure's Pornography, David Bowie's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's Organisation as pivotal records during his youth.

[13][14] Ogre said that Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures introduced him to "the dark side of music"; he soon found himself gravitating towards musicians such as Throbbing Gristle, Portion Control, and Front 242.

[18] He also met future collaborator Steven Gilmore, whom he learned had also attended Ernest Manning High School in Calgary.

"[17] Along with Bill Leeb (Wilhelm Shroeder), Ogre and Key produced the EP Remission in 1984 and released it through the newly established Nettwerk label.

[23] Following Bites, Ogre began to construct more politically and socially minded lyrics such as those for the song "Dig It", which he says describes "a fight to rise above in the work force/ which can turn into your early grave".

[27] Skinny Puppy became known for their performance art laden live shows, a result of Ogre's use of costumes, props, and fake blood.

[29] Ogre described the Too Dark Park tour as his career high point, during which he ran off what he called "car-crash energy".

[30] He joined the Banff Centre as an artist-in-residence in spring 2000[31] before reuniting with Key to perform at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden as Skinny Puppy.

[34] Ogre told the San Francisco Examiner that "they didn’t even use our actual recordings – they used bootlegs, so there was all sorts of hiss and distortion in the mix, which was probably even more disturbing to the person who was having it done to them".

[42] A video for the song "Cracker" was produced by Skinny Puppy collaborator William Morrison, who would join the group on tour.

[54] Ogre next worked with Jourgensen on the Ministry album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, receiving credit as a writer on the song "Thieves".

[55] Ogre introduced Jourgensen to Toronto native Angelina Lukacin whose voice was recorded for the album closer "Dream Song".

[57] He said that "Playing with Ministry was insane everywhere, especially during the tour for The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, which had the cage set up at the front of the stage.

[9] The single "Burning Inside" featured a live cover of the Skinny Puppy song "Smothered Hope",[58] with Ogre contributing vocals.

The duo's only release, 1998's Bedside Toxicology, provided a showcase for Ogre's singing, something which he had worked on while spending time in Seattle.

[17] His lyrics, usually delivered as a stream of consciousness meant to invoke certain images to the listener,[82] range from surrealistic to overtly sociopolitical, and explore topics such as vivisection, war, disease, the environment, addiction, and self-determination.

[85] In the mid 90s, fearing that after years of strain he was beginning to lose his voice, he started receiving vocal training and implemented various exercises to save it.

[93] On stage, he employs a wide range of props and costumes, and uses liberal amounts of fake blood despite an allergy to red food dye.

[94][95] He considered the Too Dark Park tour to be a career high point[9] and one of his favorites, and included several large set pieces,[96] one of which, the stilt-man, involved Ogre walking on stilts while operating a pair of hydraulic crutches as he lurched towards the audience.

[100] He told the San Francisco Examiner that he had disliked his early work with Skinny Puppy, saying that he thought of himself as a "ham-fisted hack".

The read was with [the] male assistant director who was playing the female opposite me in a kind of sexy situation [...] I just lost my shit trying to make this work and thought, 'this isn’t for me'".

The film's director Gregg Araki, a Skinny Puppy fan, invited the band to play as a group of goons who attack a car.

[109] Ogre reunited with Bousman for the 2012 horror musical short The Devil's Carnival and its accompanying road tour as The Twin.

[113] Ogre was also featured in the 2016 documentary Diary of a Dead Beat, which follows the career of filmmaker Jim Van Bebber.

He has more specifically explained his grievances with cases such as monkeys faces being crushed in laboratories to test car crash physics models or vivisections performed on dogs.

"[115] This stance culminated in the 1988 Skinny Puppy album VIVIsectVI and its accompanying stage show, which featured re-enactments of animal experiments with a prop dog.