Kenneth Branagh
Born 1960
Known for Murder on the Orient Express, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dunkirk.
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).
Movie Credits
A Haunting in Venice (2023)
Death on the Nile (2022)
All Is True (2018)
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Before the Dinosaurs: Walking with Monsters (2005)
Warm Springs (2005)
The Tramp and the Dictator (2002)
Conspiracy (2001)
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (2000)
The Road to El Dorado (2000)
IMAX: Galapagos 3D (1999)
The Gingerbread Man (1998)
Hamlet (1996)
Anne Frank Remembered (1995)
Peter's Friends (1992)
Dead Again (1991)
Henry V (1989)
Mayday (2026)
Adventures in Love & Birding (2025)
Tea with Judi Dench (2025)
The King of Kings (2025)
Fireheart (2022)
My Week with Marilyn (2011)
Valkyrie (2008)
Celebrity (1998)
The Proposition (1998)
The Theory of Flight (1998)
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Symphony for the Spire (1992)
Discovering Hamlet (1990)
A Month in the Country (1987)
London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder (2012)
Wild Wild West (1999)
Othello (1995)
Tenet (2020)
Dunkirk (2017)
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe (2014)
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope (2011)
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (2010)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Love's Labour's Lost (2000)
The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026)
Sleuth (2007)
The Boat That Rocked (2009)
Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of ‘Tenet’ (2020)
Five Children and It (2004)
Looking for Richard (1996)
Swing Kids (1993)
Oppenheimer (2023)
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba (2022)
Mindhorn (2016)
As You Like It (2006)
Chariots of Fire (1981)
