Kenneth Branagh
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
1960-12-10
Biography: Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA in London and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. His accolades include an Academy Award, four BAFTAs, two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Olivier Award. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in 2012 and was given Freedom of the City in his native Belfast in 2018. In 2020, he was ranked in 20th place on The Irish Times's list of Ireland's greatest film actors. Branagh has directed and starred in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays, including Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Othello (1995), Hamlet (1996), and As You Like It (2006). He was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Director for Henry V and Best Adapted Screenplay for Hamlet. He directed Swan Song (1992), which earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. He also directed Peter's Friends (1992), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Thor (2011), and Cinderella (2015). For his semi-autobiographical film Belfast (2021), he was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Director and won Best Original Screenplay. Branagh directed and starred as Hercule Poirot in the Hercule Poirot film series (2017–present). He has also acted in Celebrity (1998), Wild Wild West (1999), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), and Valkyrie (2008). His portrayal of Laurence Olivier in My Week with Marilyn (2011) earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He played supporting roles in Christopher Nolan's films Dunkirk (2017), Tenet (2020), and Oppenheimer (2023). Branagh has starred in the BBC1 series Fortunes of War (1987), the Channel 4 series Shackleton (2002), the television film Warm Springs (2005), and the BBC One series Wallander (2008–2016). He received a Primetime Emmy Award and an International Emmy Award for Best Actor for portraying SS leader Reinhard Heydrich in the HBO film Conspiracy (2001).
Movies:
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Road to El Dorado
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Valkyrie
Hamlet
It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein
Henry V
Sleuth
Peter's Friends
Dead Again
Much Ado About Nothing
Wild Wild West
Celebrity
Chariots of Fire
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Conspiracy
The Gingerbread Man
Walking with Monsters
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
A Month in the Country
Othello
Five Children and It
Warm Springs
IMAX: Galapagos 3D
The Periwig-Maker
The Boat That Rocked
Love's Labour's Lost
My Week with Marilyn
The Theory of Flight
Mayday
Strange Interlude
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story
A Haunting in Venice
High Season
London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder
Ghosts
Universal Horror
Stars In Shorts
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
The Magic Touch of Harry Potter
Discovering Hamlet
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
Shadow of a Gunman
The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs
Look Back in Anger
Discovering Hamlet
Looking for Richard
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Easter 2016
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
Alien Love Triangle
Oppenheimer
The Proposition
Schneider's 2nd Stage
Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out
Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe
Denzel Washington: A Model American
As You Like It
The Dance of Shiva
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
The King of Kings
Dunkirk
Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic
Murder on the Orient Express
Coming Through
The Tramp and the Dictator
Anne Frank Remembered
A Matter of Choice for Billy
A Coming to Terms for Billy
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
The Book That Wrote Itself
Prodigal
Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer
To the Lighthouse
The Lady's Not For Burning
Swing Kids
Mindhorn
Death on the Nile
The Beasts Within
Triumph of the Beasts
Avengers: Infinity War
All Is True
A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers
A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics
Too Late to Talk to Billy
Lorna
James Ellis: An Actor's Life
Tenet
Lost Lives
Thor: From Asgard to Earth
It's a Whole New West: The Making of 'Wild, Wild West'
Wild Wild West: Loveless's Ladies
Wild Wild West: Evil Devices
Fireheart
Thames Wallah
Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of ‘Tenet’
Altman on His Own Terms
Atonement
The Devil Wears Prada 2
The Thomas Crown Affair
Marvel Studios: Building a Cinematic Universe
Symphony for the Spire
Profiles:
