Kenneth Branagh
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).
Acting (97 movies)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2002
The Road to El Dorado
2000
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1994
Valkyrie
2008
Hamlet
1996
It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein
1994
Henry V
1989
Sleuth
2007
Peter's Friends
1992
Dead Again
1991
Much Ado About Nothing
1993
Wild Wild West
1999
Celebrity
1998
Chariots of Fire
1981
Rabbit-Proof Fence
2002
Conspiracy
2001
The Gingerbread Man
1998
Walking with Monsters
2005
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
2002
A Month in the Country
1987
Othello
1995
Five Children and It
2004
Warm Springs
2005
IMAX: Galapagos 3D
1999
The Periwig-Maker
1999
The Boat That Rocked
2009
Love's Labour's Lost
2000
My Week with Marilyn
2011
The Theory of Flight
1999
Strange Interlude
1988
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story
2010
A Haunting in Venice
2023
High Season
1987
London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder
2012
Ghosts
1987
Universal Horror
1998
Stars In Shorts
2012
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
2014
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
2022
The Magic Touch of Harry Potter
2004
Discovering Hamlet
2011
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
2013
Shadow of a Gunman
1995
Look Back in Anger
1989
Discovering Hamlet
1990
Looking for Richard
1996
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
2009
Easter 2016
1982
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
2000
Alien Love Triangle
2008
Oppenheimer
2023
The Proposition
1998
Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out
2007
Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe
2014
Denzel Washington: A Model American
2022
As You Like It
2006
The Dance of Shiva
1998
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
2015
The King of Kings
2025
Dunkirk
2017
Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic
2004
Murder on the Orient Express
2017
Coming Through
1985
The Tramp and the Dictator
2002
Anne Frank Remembered
1995
A Matter of Choice for Billy
1983
A Coming to Terms for Billy
1984
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
2011
The Book That Wrote Itself
2000
Prodigal
2011
Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer
2016
To the Lighthouse
1983
The Lady's Not For Burning
1987
Swing Kids
1993
Mindhorn
2016
Death on the Nile
2022
The Beasts Within
2001
Triumph of the Beasts
2001
Avengers: Infinity War
2018
All Is True
2018
A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers
2009
A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics
2009
Too Late to Talk to Billy
1982
Lorna
1987
James Ellis: An Actor's Life
2007
Tenet
2020
Lost Lives
2019
Thor: From Asgard to Earth
2011
It's a Whole New West: The Making of 'Wild, Wild West'
1999
Wild Wild West: Evil Devices
1999
Fireheart
2022
Thames Wallah
1988
Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of ‘Tenet’
2020
Altman on His Own Terms
2000
The Devil Wears Prada 2
2026
Marvel Studios: Building a Cinematic Universe
2012
Symphony for the Spire
1992
Directing (25 movies)
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1994
Hamlet
1996
Sleuth
2007
Thor
2011
Henry V
1989
Dead Again
1991
A Haunting in Venice
2023
Much Ado About Nothing
1993
Peter's Friends
1992
In the Bleak Midwinter
1995
The Magic Flute
2006
As You Like It
2006
Love's Labour's Lost
2000
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
2014
Cinderella
2015
Swan Song
1992
Murder on the Orient Express
2017
Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet
2016
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
2015
Artemis Fowl
2020
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
1988
Death on the Nile
2022
All Is True
2018
Listening
2003
Belfast
2021
| Title | Year | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Henry V | 1989 | Writer |
| Peter's Friends | 1992 | Producer |
| Much Ado About Nothing | 1993 | Producer |
| Much Ado About Nothing | 1993 | Writer |
| In the Bleak Midwinter | 1995 | Writer |
| Love's Labour's Lost | 2000 | Writer |
| Love's Labour's Lost | 2000 | Screenplay |
| Love's Labour's Lost | 2000 | Producer |
| Listening | 2003 | Writer |
| As You Like It | 2006 | Writer |
| As You Like It | 2006 | Producer |
| The Magic Flute | 2006 | Screenplay |
| The Magic Flute | 2006 | Producer |
| Sleuth | 2007 | Producer |
| Thor: The Dark World | 2013 | Producer |
| Murder on the Orient Express | 2017 | Producer |
| All Is True | 2018 | Producer |
| Artemis Fowl | 2020 | Producer |
| Belfast | 2021 | Producer |
| Belfast | 2021 | Writer |
| Death on the Nile | 2022 | Producer |
| A Haunting in Venice | 2023 | Producer |