Kenneth Branagh
Acting
- Born:
- 1960-12-10
- Place of birth:
- Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
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).
Known For
Filmography
The Thomas Crown Affair
Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean
Atonement
Mayday
The Devil Wears Prada 2
Tea with Judi Dench featuring Kenneth Branagh
The American Revolution
The King of Kings
BLUE EYE SAMURAI
A Haunting in Venice
Oppenheimer
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
Denzel Washington: A Model American
This England
Remembers…
Death on the Nile
Fireheart
Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of ‘Tenet’
Tenet
Lost Lives
The Kelly Clarkson Show
All Is True
Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years - More Than a Hero
Avengers: Infinity War
Murder on the Orient Express
Dunkirk
Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer
Mindhorn
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Hot Ones
Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
Stars in Shorts
London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder
My Week with Marilyn
Discovering Hamlet
Thor: From Asgard to Earth
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
Prodigal
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story
A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics
A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
The Boat That Rocked
Valkyrie
Wallander
10 Days to War
Alien Love Triangle
Sleuth
Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out
James Ellis: An Actor's Life
The Graham Norton Show
El hormiguero
As You Like It
Walking with Monsters
Walking with Monsters
Warm Springs
The Goebbels Experiment
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Five Children and It
Parkinson
The Magic Touch of Harry Potter
Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
World War I in Colour
Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence
Real Time with Bill Maher
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
The Tramp and the Dictator
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Shackleton
The Beasts Within
Triumph of the Beasts
Walking with Beasts
Conspiracy
Schneider's 2nd Stage
The Ballad of Big Al
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
The Book That Wrote Itself
The Road to El Dorado
Love's Labour's Lost
The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs
Altman on His Own Terms
Wild Wild West: Evil Devices
Wild Wild West: Loveless's Ladies
The Periwig-Maker
IMAX: Galapagos 3D
Walking with Dinosaurs
Wild Wild West
It's a Whole New West: The Making of 'Wild, Wild West'
The Theory of Flight
The Dance of Shiva
Universal Horror
Celebrity
Cold War
The Proposition
The Gingerbread Man
Parkinson
The View
Leute heute
Hamlet
Looking for Richard
TFI Friday
Othello
Shadow of a Gunman
Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood
Anne Frank Remembered
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Much Ado About Nothing
Swing Kids
Peter's Friends
Symphony for the Spire
Performance
Dead Again
Discovering Hamlet
Look Back in Anger
Henry V
Thompson
American Experience
Thames Wallah
Strange Interlude
Fortunes of War
A Month in the Country
High Season
Ghosts
Lorna
The Lady's Not For Burning
Coming Through
Theatre Night
A Coming to Terms for Billy
The Boy in the Bush
A Matter of Choice for Billy
To the Lighthouse
Easter 2016
Wogan
Too Late to Talk to Billy
American Playhouse
Chariots of Fire
Film '72
Play for Today
Omnibus
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Tony Awards
The Oscars
Golden Globe Awards
Goblin
Laird