Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (/ˈbrænə/ BRAN-ə; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) 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, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Olivier Award. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours 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' list of Ireland's greatest film actors. He 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 Best Director and won Best Original Screenplay. Branagh directed and starred as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Death on the Nile (2022), and A Haunting in Venice (2023). 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), Rabbit-Proof Fence (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), and the BBC One series Wallander (2008–2016). He received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and an International Emmy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich in the HBO film Conspiracy (2001). He also received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for his role as Franklin D. Roosevelt in the television film Warm Springs (2005). Description above from the Wikipedia article Kenneth Branagh, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Credits
- 2025 · The King of Kings as Charles Dickens (voice)
- 2023 · BLUE EYE SAMURAI as Abijah Fowler (voice)
- 2023 · A Haunting in Venice as Hercule Poirot
- 2023 · Oppenheimer as Niels Bohr
- 2022 · Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba as Self
- 2022 · Denzel Washington : Un modèle américain as Self
- 2022 · This England as Boris Johnson
- 2022 · Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Thor: Love and Thunder as Self - Director (archive footage)
- 2022 · Death on the Nile as Hercule Poirot
- 2022 · Fireheart as Shawn Nolan (voice)
- 2016 · Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer as Archie Rice
- 2012 · Stars In Shorts as Mark Snow
- 2012 · London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder as Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- 2011 · Discovering Hamlet as Hamlet (archive footage)
- 2011 · Thor: From Asgard to Earth as Self
- 2011 · Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope as Himself
- 2010 · With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story as Self
- 2009 · A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers as Self
- 2009 · 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year as Narrator (voice)
- 2007 · Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out as Self
- 2005 · Warm Springs as Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 2003 · World War 1 in Colour as Narrator
- 2002 · How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog as Peter McGowan
- 2002 · The Tramp and the Dictator as Narrator (voice)
- 2000 · The Book That Wrote Itself as Kenneth Branagh
- 2000 · Love's Labour's Lost as Berowne
- 1999 · The Periwig-Maker as Periwig-maker (voice)
- 1999 · IMAX: Galapagos 3D as Narrator
- 1999 · The Theory of Flight as Richard
- 1998 · Universal Horror as Narrator
- 1998 · Cold War as
- 1995 · Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood as
- 1995 · Anne Frank Remembered as Narration (voice)
- 1994 · It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein as Self
- 1989 · Look Back in Anger as Jimmy Porter
- 1988 · Thompson as Self
- 1987 · A Month in the Country as James Soon
- 1987 · High Season as Rick
- 1984 · The Boy in the Bush as Jack Grant
- 1982 · Easter 2016 as Student
- Future · Mayday as
- 2020 · Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of 'Tenet' as Self
- 2020 · Tenet as Sator
- 2019 · Lost Lives as
- 2019 · The Kelly Clarkson Show as
- 2018 · All Is True as William Shakespeare
- 2018 · Avengers: Infinity War as Asgardian Distress Call (voice) (uncredited)
- 2017 · Murder on the Orient Express as Hercule Poirot
- 2017 · Dunkirk as Commander Bolton
- 2016 · Mindhorn as Himself
- 2016 · Upstart Crow as Colin/The Stranger
- 2015 · Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale as Leontes
- 2015 · The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as Self
- 2014 · Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe as Self
- 2014 · Late Night with Seth Meyers as Self
- 2014 · Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit as Viktor Cherevin
- 2013 · National Theatre Live: Macbeth as Macbeth, Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, general in the King's army
- 2012 · Honest Trailers as Hercules Poirot (archive footage)
- 2011 · My Week with Marilyn as Sir Laurence Olivier
- 2011 · Prodigal as Mark Snow
- 2009 · A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics as Self
- 2009 · The Boat That Rocked as Dormandy
- 2008 · Valkyrie as Henning von Tresckow
- 2008 · Wallander as Kurt Wallander
- 2008 · Wallander as
- 2008 · 10 Days to War as Colonel Tim Collins
- 2008 · Alien Love Triangle as Steven Chesterman
- 2007 · Sleuth as Other Man on T.V.
- 2007 · James Ellis: An Actor's Life as Himself
- 2007 · The Graham Norton Show as Self
- 2007 · The Graham Norton Show as Self - Guest
- 2006 · El hormiguero as Self
- 2006 · As You Like It as self
- 2005 · Walking with Monsters as Narrator (voice)
- 2005 · Walking with Monsters as Narrator (voice)
- 2005 · The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson as Self
- 2004 · Five Children and It as Uncle Albert
- 2004 · The Magic Touch of Harry Potter as Self
- 2004 · Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic as Narrator (voice)
- 2003 · The Ellen DeGeneres Show as Self
- 2003 · Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence as Himself / Narrator
- 2003 · Real Time with Bill Maher as Self
- 2002 · Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Gilderoy Lockhart
- 2002 · Rabbit-Proof Fence as A. O. Neville
- 2002 · Shackleton as Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
- 2001 · The Beasts Within as Narrator (voice)
- 2001 · Triumph of the Beasts as Narrator (voice)
- 2001 · Walking with Beasts as Narrator
- 2001 · Conspiracy as Reinhard Heydrich
- 2001 · Schneider's 2nd Stage as Joseph Barnett
- 2000 · Big Al as Narrator
- 2000 · Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces as Self / Narrator
- 2000 · The Road to El Dorado as Miguel (voice)
- 2000 · The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs as Narrator
- 1999 · Wild Wild West: Loveless's Ladies as Himself
- 1999 · Wild Wild West: Evil Devices as Himself
- 1999 · Walking with Dinosaurs as Narrator (voice)
- 1999 · Wild Wild West as Dr. Arliss Loveless
- 1999 · It's a Whole New West: The Making of 'Wild, Wild West' as Self
- 1998 · The Dance of Shiva as Colonel Evans
- 1998 · Celebrity as Lee Simon
- 1998 · The Proposition as Father Michael McKinnon
- 1998 · The Gingerbread Man as Rick Magruder
- 1998 · Parkinson as Self
- 1997 · The View as Self
- 1997 · Leute heute as Self
- 1996 · Hamlet as Prince Hamlet
- 1996 · Looking for Richard as Self - Interviewee
- 1995 · Othello as Iago
- 1995 · Shadow of a Gunman as Donal Davoren
- 1994 · Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as Victor Frankenstein
- 1993 · Late Night with Conan O'Brien as Self - Guest
- 1993 · Much Ado About Nothing as Benedick
- 1993 · Swing Kids as Herr Knopp, Gestapo
- 1992 · Peter's Friends as Andrew Benson
- 1991 · Dead Again as Roman Strauss / Mike Church
- 1991 · Performance as Donal Davoren
- 1990 · Discovering Hamlet as Himself / Hamlet
- 1989 · Henry V as Henry V
- 1988 · American Experience as Narrator (voice)
- 1988 · Strange Interlude as Gordon Evans
- 1988 · Thames Wallah as Narrator
- 1987 · Fortunes of War as Guy Pringle
- 1987 · Ghosts as Oswald
- 1987 · Lorna as Billy Martin
- 1987 · The Lady's Not For Burning as Thomas Mendip
- 1985 · Coming Through as D.H. Lawrence
- 1984 · A Coming to Terms for Billy as Billy Martin
- 1983 · A Matter of Choice for Billy as Billy Martin
- 1983 · To the Lighthouse as Charles Tansley
- 1982 · Wogan as Self
- 1982 · Too Late to Talk to Billy as Billy Martin
- 1981 · Chariots of Fire as Cambridge Student at Society Day (uncredited)
- 1970 · Play for Today as
- 1962 · The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as Self
- 1956 · Tony Awards as Self
- 1953 · The Oscars as Self