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).
Known for
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Gilderoy Lockhart
Golden Globe Awards
Self - Nominee
Avengers: Infinity War
Asgardian Distress Call (voice) (uncredited)
Tony Awards
Self
Oppenheimer
Niels Bohr
American Experience
Narrator (voice)
Play for Today
Tenet
Sator
The Oscars
Self
The Devil Wears Prada 2
The American Revolution
voice
The American Revolution
Death on the Nile
Hercule Poirot
BLUE EYE SAMURAI
Abijah Fowler (voice)
Wallander
Kurt Wallander
The King of Kings
Charles Dickens (voice)
Fireheart
Shawn Nolan (voice)
Dunkirk
Commander Bolton
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein
Mayday
The Road to El Dorado
Miguel (voice)
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Viktor Cherevin
Dead Again
Roman Strauss / Mike Church
The Thomas Crown Affair
Mindhorn
Himself
Hamlet
Prince Hamlet
Murder on the Orient Express
Hercule Poirot
Wild Wild West
Dr. Arliss Loveless
Love's Labour's Lost
Berowne
Performance
Donal Davoren
A Haunting in Venice
Hercule Poirot
Chariots of Fire
Cambridge Student at Society Day (uncredited)
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
Peter McGowan
The Gingerbread Man
Rick Magruder
The Proposition
Father Michael McKinnon
Valkyrie
Henning von Tresckow
Five Children and It
Uncle Albert
Much Ado About Nothing
Benedick
Swing Kids
Herr Knopp, Gestapo (uncredited)
Looking for Richard
Self - Interviewee
Rabbit-Proof Fence
A. O. Neville
Henry V
Henry V
Easter 2016
Student
Othello
Iago
As You Like It
Self (voice)
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
Self / Narrator
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Narrator (voice)
My Week with Marilyn
Sir Laurence Olivier
The Boat That Rocked
Dormandy
Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer
Archie Rice
Celebrity
Lee Simon
Altman on His Own Terms
Self
Lorna
Billy Martin
Sleuth
Other Man on T.V.
Discovering Hamlet
Hamlet (archive footage)
Strange Interlude
Gordon Evans
Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe
Self
Discovering Hamlet
Himself / Hamlet
Shadow of a Gunman
Donal Davoren
The Theory of Flight
Richard
Prodigal
Mark Snow
Peter's Friends
Andrew Benson
All Is True
William Shakespeare
Walking with Dinosaurs
Narrator (voice)
Lost Lives
High Season
Rick
London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
To the Lighthouse
Charles Tansley
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
Macbeth
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Leontes
Anne Frank Remembered
Narration (voice)
Shackleton
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
Coming Through
D.H. Lawrence
Conspiracy
Reinhard Heydrich
A Month in the Country
James Moon
Denzel Washington: A Model American
Self
Warm Springs
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Universal Horror
Narrator
Big Al
Narrator
The Magic Touch of Harry Potter
Self
Walking with Beasts
Narrator
It's a Whole New West: The Making of 'Wild, Wild West'
Self
Look Back in Anger
Jimmy Porter
Theatre Night
Oswald Alving
Ghosts
Oswald Alving
Fortunes of War
Guy Pringle
A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers
Self
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
Self
The Lady's Not For Burning
Thomas Mendip
Cold War
Stars In Shorts
Mark Snow
Walking with Monsters
Narrator (voice)
10 Days to War
Colonel Tim Collins
Thompson
Self
This England
Boris Johnson
Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic
Narrator (voice)
Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of ‘Tenet’
Self
The Periwig-Maker
Periwig-maker (voice)
Alien Love Triangle
Steven Chesterman
Marvel Studios: Building a Cinematic Universe
Self
Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out
Self
World War 1 in Colour
Narrator
Atonement
Michael Reid
IMAX: Galapagos 3D
Narrator
Thor: From Asgard to Earth
Self
Walking with Monsters
Narrator (voice)
Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood
Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence
Himself / Narrator
The Boy in the Bush
Jack Grant
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story
Self
The Goblin
(voice)
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
Self
The Book That Wrote Itself
Kenneth Branagh
Too Late to Talk to Billy
Billy Martin
It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein
Self
A Matter of Choice for Billy
Billy Martin
Thames Wallah
Narrator
Schneider's 2nd Stage
Joseph Barnett
The Tramp and the Dictator
Narrator (voice)
The Beasts Within
Narrator (voice)
Symphony for the Spire
James Ellis: An Actor's Life
Himself
Triumph of the Beasts
Narrator (voice)
A Coming to Terms for Billy
Billy Martin
Wild Wild West: Evil Devices
Himself
The Dance of Shiva
Colonel Evans
A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics
Self
Wild Wild West: Loveless's Ladies
Himself
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Self
The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs
Narrator
The Kelly Clarkson Show
Self
The Graham Norton Show
Self
The Graham Norton Show
Self - Guest
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Self
Leute heute
Self
Real Time with Bill Maher
Self
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Self
El hormiguero
Self
The View
Self
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Self - Guest
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Self
Wogan
Self
Parkinson
Self