Kenneth Branagh profile
Actor profile

Kenneth Branagh

10th December 1960 Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK Acting

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).

101 Movies 42 TV Shows 2 In Production 153 Credits
Filmography

Movies & TV Shows

Fireheart poster
Fireheart 16th January 2022 as Shawn Nolan (voice)
Tenet poster
Tenet 22nd August 2020 as Sator
Dunkirk poster
Dunkirk 19th July 2017 as Commander Bolton
Valkyrie poster
Valkyrie 25th December 2008 as Henning von Tresckow
Sleuth poster
Sleuth 12th October 2007 as Other Man on T.V.
Hamlet poster
Hamlet 25th December 1996 as Prince Hamlet
Swing Kids poster
Swing Kids 5th March 1993 as Herr Knopp, Gestapo (uncredited)
Dead Again poster
Dead Again 23rd August 1991 as Roman Strauss / Mike Church
Ghosts poster
Ghosts 14th June 1987 as Oswald Alving
Lorna poster
Lorna 2nd June 1987 as Billy Martin
Shackleton poster
Shackleton 2nd January 2002 as Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
Big Al poster
Big Al 25th December 2000 as Narrator
The Thomas Crown Affair poster Coming soon
The Thomas Crown Affair 4th March 2027
Mayday poster Coming soon
Mayday 3rd September 2026 as Nikolai Ustinov