Kenneth Branagh

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).

Filmography (148 Appearances)

Atonement

Upcoming (2026)

The Thomas Crown Affair

Upcoming (2027)

Allosaurus A Walking With Dinosaurs Special

TBA

Goblin

TBA

Laird

TBA

Mayday

2026

Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean

2026

The Devil Wears Prada 2

2026

Tea with Judi Dench featuring Kenneth Branagh

2025

The American Revolution

2025

The King of Kings

2025

BLUE EYE SAMURAI

2023

A Haunting in Venice

2023

Oppenheimer

2023

Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba

2022

Denzel Washington: A Model American

2022

This England

2022

Remembers…

2022

Death on the Nile

2022

Fireheart

2022

Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of ‘Tenet’

2020

Tenet

2020

Lost Lives

2019

The Kelly Clarkson Show

2019

All Is True

2018

Avengers: Infinity War

2018

Murder on the Orient Express

2017

Dunkirk

2017

Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer

2016

Mindhorn

2016

Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale

2015

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

2015

Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe

2014

Late Night with Seth Meyers

2014

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

2014

National Theatre Live: Macbeth

2013

Stars in Shorts

2012

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder

2012

My Week with Marilyn

2011

Discovering Hamlet

2011

Thor: From Asgard to Earth

2011

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

2011

Prodigal

2011

With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story

2010

A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics

2009

A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers

2009

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

2009

The Boat That Rocked

2009

Valkyrie

2008

Wallander

2008

10 Days to War

2008

Alien Love Triangle

2008

Sleuth

2007

Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out

2007

James Ellis: An Actor's Life

2007

The Graham Norton Show

2007

El hormiguero

2006

As You Like It

2006

Walking with Monsters

2005

Walking with Monsters

2005

Warm Springs

2005

The Goebbels Experiment

2005

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

2005

Five Children and It

2004

The Magic Touch of Harry Potter

2004

Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic

2004

The Ellen DeGeneres Show

2003

World War I in Colour

2003

Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence

2003

Real Time with Bill Maher

2003

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

2002

How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog

2002

The Tramp and the Dictator

2002

Rabbit-Proof Fence

2002

Shackleton

2002

The Beasts Within

2001

Triumph of the Beasts

2001

Walking with Beasts

2001

Conspiracy

2001

Schneider's 2nd Stage

2001

Big Al

2000

Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces

2000

The Book That Wrote Itself

2000

Love's Labour's Lost

2000

The Road to El Dorado

2000

The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs

2000

Altman on His Own Terms

2000

Wild Wild West: Loveless's Ladies

1999

Wild Wild West: Evil Devices

1999

The Periwig-Maker

1999

IMAX: Galapagos 3D

1999

Walking with Dinosaurs

1999

Wild Wild West

1999

It's a Whole New West: The Making of 'Wild, Wild West'

1999

The Theory of Flight

1999

The Dance of Shiva

1998

Universal Horror

1998

Celebrity

1998

Cold War

1998

The Proposition

1998

The Gingerbread Man

1998

Parkinson

1998

The View

1997

Leute heute

1997

Hamlet

1996

Looking for Richard

1996

TFI Friday

1996

Othello

1995

Shadow of a Gunman

1995

Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood

1995

Anne Frank Remembered

1995

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

1994

It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein

1994

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

1993

Much Ado About Nothing

1993

Swing Kids

1993

Peter's Friends

1992

Symphony for the Spire

1992

Performance

1991

Dead Again

1991

Discovering Hamlet

1990

Look Back in Anger

1989

Henry V

1989

Thompson

1988

American Experience

1988

Thames Wallah

1988

Strange Interlude

1988

Fortunes of War

1987

A Month in the Country

1987

High Season

1987

Ghosts

1987

Lorna

1987

The Lady's Not For Burning

1987

Coming Through

1985

Theatre Night

1985

A Coming to Terms for Billy

1984

The Boy in the Bush

1984

A Matter of Choice for Billy

1983

To the Lighthouse

1983

Easter 2016

1982

Wogan

1982

Too Late to Talk to Billy

1982

American Playhouse

1982

Chariots of Fire

1981 Debut

Film '72

1971

Play for Today

1970

Omnibus

1967

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

1962
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