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).
146 acting credits · 26 directing credits
Acting · 146
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015
The Graham Norton Show
2007
The Kelly Clarkson Show
2019
Real Time with Bill Maher
2003
The Devil Wears Prada 2
2026
Golden Globe Awards
1944
Avengers: Infinity War
2018
The View
1997
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
2005
Play for Today
1970
American Experience
1988
El hormiguero
2006
Leute heute
1997
Tony Awards
1956
Wogan
1982
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
2003
Oppenheimer
2023
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2002
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993
Omnibus
1967
The Oscars
1953
Tenet
2020
Performance
1991
Dunkirk
2017
Remembers…
2022
Parkinson
1998
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
2014
The Road to El Dorado
2000
Murder on the Orient Express
2017
BLUE EYE SAMURAI
2023
Wallander
2008
The American Revolution
2025
Death on the Nile
2022
Valkyrie
2008
A Haunting in Venice
2023
The King of Kings
2025
Chariots of Fire
1981
Wild Wild West
1999
Walking with Dinosaurs
1999
Shackleton
2002
Theatre Night
1985
Fortunes of War
1987
Hamlet
1996
This England
2022
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1994
Walking with Beasts
2001
10 Days to War
2008
Much Ado About Nothing
1993
The Boat That Rocked
2009
Conspiracy
2001
My Week with Marilyn
2011
Dead Again
1991
Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe
2014
Henry V
1989
Fireheart
2022
Sleuth
2007
Cold War
1998
Swing Kids
1993
Celebrity
1998
Mindhorn
2016
The Book That Wrote Itself
2000
Rabbit-Proof Fence
2002
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story
2010
Mayday
2026
The Thomas Crown Affair
2027
Big Al
2000
All Is True
2018
Walking with Monsters
2005
Thompson
1988
As You Like It
2006
Looking for Richard
1996
It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein
1994
Peter's Friends
1992
The Gingerbread Man
1998
The Magic Touch of Harry Potter
2004
London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder
2012
Five Children and It
2004
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
2011
Alien Love Triangle
2008
The Boy in the Bush
1984
The Proposition
1998
Othello
1995
World War I in Colour
2003
Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood
1995
Lost Lives
2019
Ghosts
1987
Love's Labour's Lost
2000
A Month in the Country
1987
Warm Springs
2005
Discovering Hamlet
2011
IMAX: Galapagos 3D
1999
Denzel Washington: A Model American
2022
The Theory of Flight
1999
Stars in Shorts
2012
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
2002
Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of ‘Tenet’
2020
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
2013
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
2022
Atonement
2026
A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers
2009
Thor: From Asgard to Earth
2011
It's a Whole New West: The Making of 'Wild, Wild West'
1999
Coming Through
1985
Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out
2007
Marvel Studios: Building a Cinematic Universe
2012
Altman on His Own Terms
2000
High Season
1987
Anne Frank Remembered
1995
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
2009
Strange Interlude
1988
A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics
2009
To the Lighthouse
1983
Universal Horror
1998
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
2015
Shadow of a Gunman
1995
Walking with Monsters
2005
Wild Wild West: Evil Devices
1999
Thames Wallah
1988
Prodigal
2011
The Tramp and the Dictator
2002
The Periwig-Maker
1999
Wild Wild West: Loveless's Ladies
1999
Discovering Hamlet
1990
Easter 2016
1982
A Coming to Terms for Billy
1984
The Lady's Not For Burning
1987
The Dance of Shiva
1998
Lorna
1987
Look Back in Anger
1989
Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence
2003
Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer
2016
Tea with Judi Dench
2025
The Goebbels Experiment
2005
Schneider's 2nd Stage
2001
James Ellis: An Actor's Life
2007
Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic
2004
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
2000
Triumph of the Beasts
2001
The Beasts Within
2001
Symphony for the Spire
1992
Too Late to Talk to Billy
1982
The Goblin
—
A Matter of Choice for Billy
1983
The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs
2000
Directing · 26
Thor
2011
Cinderella
2015
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
2014
Murder on the Orient Express
2017
Death on the Nile
2022
A Haunting in Venice
2023
Hamlet
1996
Artemis Fowl
2020
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1994
Much Ado About Nothing
1993
Belfast
2021
Dead Again
1991
Henry V
1989
Sleuth
2007
All Is True
2018
As You Like It
2006
In the Bleak Midwinter
1995
Peter's Friends
1992
Love's Labour's Lost
2000
Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet
2016
Listening
2003
The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde
—
The Magic Flute
2006
Swan Song
1992
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
2015
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
1988