Kenneth Branagh
Known For
Acting
Born
1960-12-10 in 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).
Most Known For
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
as Self
Late Night with Seth Meyers
as Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
The Kelly Clarkson Show
as Self
The Graham Norton Show
as Self
The Graham Norton Show
as Self - Guest
The View
as Self
Real Time with Bill Maher
as Self
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
as Self
Avengers: Infinity War
as Asgardian Distress Call (voice) (uncredited)
Golden Globe Awards
as Self - Nominee
American Experience
as Narrator (voice)
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
as Self - Guest
El hormiguero
as Self
Leute heute
as Self
Oppenheimer
as Niels Bohr
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
as Self
Play for Today
Wogan
as Self
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
as Gilderoy Lockhart