Kenneth Branagh
Acting
🎂 1960-12-10
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh 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).
Cast credits(140)
Self
2007
Self - Guest
2007
Self
1962
Self
2003
Self
2014
Asgardian Distress Call (voice) (uncredited)
2018
Self
2019
Self
2015
Gilderoy Lockhart
2002
Niels Bohr
2023
Self
1956
1970
Self
1982
Self - Nominee
1944
Narrator (voice)
1988
Self
2005
Self
1997
Self
1997
Self
2003
Sator
2020
Self
2006
Self - Guest
1993
Commander Bolton
2017
Self
1998
Self
1953
Donal Davoren
1991
Abijah Fowler (voice)
2023
Henning von Tresckow
2008
Hercule Poirot
2017
Hercule Poirot
2022
Miguel (voice)
2000
Victor Frankenstein
1994
Kurt Wallander
2008
Charles Dickens (voice)
2025
Self
2012
Viktor Cherevin
2014
Hercule Poirot
2023
2027
Dr. Arliss Loveless
1999
Hamlet (archive footage)
2011
2026
Reinhard Heydrich
2001
Kenneth Branagh
2000
Other Man on T.V.
2007
Himself / Hamlet
1990
Cambridge Student at Society Day (uncredited)
1981
Self
2011
Narrator (voice)
1999
Self
2014
Andrew Benson
1992
Dormandy
2009
Rick Magruder
1998
Billy Martin
1984
Prince Hamlet
1996
Lee Simon
1998
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
2002
Shawn Nolan (voice)
2022
Self
2022
Self - Interviewee
1996
Narrator
1998
Self
2011
Henry V
1989
Benedick
1993
Iago
1995
Sir Laurence Olivier
2011
Mark Snow
2011
Narrator
2001
Herr Knopp, Gestapo (uncredited)
1993
2019
Roman Strauss / Mike Church
1991
Billy Martin
1983
Uncle Albert
2004
Self
2004
Self
1994
A. O. Neville
2002
Guy Pringle
1987
Richard
1999
Boris Johnson
2022
William Shakespeare
2018
Self
2020
D.H. Lawrence
1985
Oswald Alving
1985
Berowne
2000
Self (voice)
2006
Leontes
2015
Steven Chesterman
2008
James Soon
1987
Father Michael McKinnon
1998
Himself / Narrator
2003
Donal Davoren
1995
Colonel Tim Collins
2008
Self
1988
Self / Narrator
2000
Periwig-maker (voice)
1999
Charles Tansley
1983
Colonel Evans
1998
Narrator (voice)
2005
Billy Martin
1987
Narrator
2000
Mark Snow
2012
1998
Narrator (voice)
2009
Self
2000
Himself
2016
Rick
1987
Macbeth, Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, general in the King's army
2013
Archie Rice
2016
Narrator (voice)
2002
Student
1982
Gordon Evans
1988
Self
2010
Peter McGowan
2002
Self
2022
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
2005
1995
Narrator
2003
Self
1999
Oswald Alving
1987
Jack Grant
1984
Self
2007
Narrator (voice)
2005
Narrator
1999
Narrator (voice)
2001
Himself
2007
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
2012
Billy Martin
1982
Narrator
1988
Thomas Mendip
1987
Jimmy Porter
1989
Himself
1999
Narrator (voice)
2001
Joseph Barnett
2001
Narrator (voice)
2004
Narration (voice)
1995
Self
2009
Himself
1999
Self
2009
Narrator
2000
Directing (28)
Director
2011
Director
2015
Director
2017
Director
2022
Director
1994
Director
2014
Director
2023
Director
2020
Director
2007
Director
1992
Director
1996
Director
2021
Director
1989
Director
1993
Director
1991
Director
2018
Director
2006
Director
2000
Director
2016
Director
2006
Director
2015
Director
Stage Director
2013
Director
1992
Director
1995
Director
2003
Stage Director
1988
Director
1988
