Sunil Ernest Wijesiriwardena is a Sri Lankan literary critic, academic, researcher, civil activist, university lecturer, poet, writer, author, playwright, civic leader and translator.
He has often advocated the importance of inculcating the arts and culture in order to ensure that they play a role in transforming societies without compromising the abilities of future generations.
He also worked predominantly as a senior consultant to develop a new syllabus from scratch with a major revamp/overhaul for the Performing Arts Department at the Sri Palee Campus which is affiliated to the University of Colombo.
He joined as a volunteer member of the Sub Selection Committee as a part of the Japan-Sri Lanka Friendship Cultural Fund in 1977, and has been worked to identify and mentor candidates for the Bunka Awards, and to promote Sri Lanka-Japan ties.
[12] In 2016, he spoke to BBC Sandeshaya studio in an interview where he discussed about sharing each other's value systems in an organised manner to bring about ethnic reconciliation in Sri Lanka.