Acting
Kenneth Branagh
EN, FR, DE cinema · 119 credits
Born
10 December 1960 (age 65)
Birthplace
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Also known as Sir Kenneth Charles 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
Filmography
Goblin
Goblin
as (voice)
The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde
The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde
Director, Screenplay
Mayday
as Nikolai Ustinov
Atonement
as Michael Reid
The Devil Wears Prada 2
as Stuart
Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean
as David Lean (voice)
The King of Kings
as Charles Dickens (voice)
A Haunting in Venice
as Hercule Poirot, Director, Producer
Oppenheimer
as Niels Bohr
Death on the Nile
as Hercule Poirot, Director, Producer
Fireheart
as Shawn Nolan (voice)
Belfast
Producer, Writer, Director
Tenet
as Sator
Artemis Fowl
Director, Producer
Lost Lives
as Narrator
Avengers: Infinity War
as Asgardian Distress Call (voice) (uncredited)
All Is True
as William Shakespeare, Director, Producer
Dunkirk
as Commander Bolton
Murder on the Orient Express
as Hercule Poirot, Director, Producer
Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer
as Archie Rice
Mindhorn
as Himself
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
as Leontes, Director
Cinderella
Director
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
as Viktor Cherevin, Director
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
as Macbeth, Stage Director
Thor: The Dark World
Producer
London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder
as Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Stars in Shorts
as Mark Snow
My Week with Marilyn
as Sir Laurence Olivier
Discovering Hamlet
as Hamlet (archive footage)
Prodigal
as Mark Snow
Thor
Director
The Boat That Rocked
as Dormandy
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
as Narrator (voice)
Valkyrie
as Henning von Tresckow
Alien Love Triangle
as Steven Chesterman
Sleuth
as Other Man on T.V., Director, Producer
As You Like It
as Self (voice), Writer, Director, Producer
The Magic Flute
Director, Screenplay, Producer, Adaptation
Walking with Monsters
as Narrator (voice)
Warm Springs
as Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The Goebbels Experiment
as Narrator (voice)
Five Children and It
as Uncle Albert
Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic
as Narrator (voice)
Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence
2003
Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence
as Himself / Narrator
Listening
2003
Listening
Director, Writer
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
as Gilderoy Lockhart
Rabbit-Proof Fence
as A. O. Neville
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
as Peter McGowan
The Tramp and the Dictator
as Narrator (voice)
Conspiracy
as Reinhard Heydrich
Schneider's 2nd Stage
2001
Schneider's 2nd Stage
as Joseph Barnett
The Beasts Within
as Narrator (voice)
Triumph of the Beasts
as Narrator (voice)
The Road to El Dorado
as Miguel (voice)
Love's Labour's Lost
as Berowne, Writer, Director, Screenplay, Producer
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
as Self / Narrator
The Book That Wrote Itself
as Kenneth Branagh
Wild Wild West
as Dr. Arliss Loveless
IMAX: Galapagos 3D
as Narrator
The Periwig-Maker
as Periwig-maker (voice)
The Theory of Flight
as Richard
Wild Wild West: Evil Devices
as Himself
Celebrity
as Lee Simon
The Gingerbread Man
as Rick Magruder
Universal Horror
as Narrator
The Proposition
as Father Michael McKinnon
The Dance of Shiva
as Colonel Evans
Hamlet
as Prince Hamlet, Director, Adaptation
Looking for Richard
as Self - Interviewee
Othello
as Iago
Shadow of a Gunman
as Donal Davoren
Anne Frank Remembered
as Narration (voice)
In the Bleak Midwinter
Director, Writer
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
as Victor Frankenstein, Director, Co-Producer
Much Ado About Nothing
as Benedick, Director, Producer, Writer
Swing Kids
as Herr Knopp, Gestapo (uncredited)
Peter's Friends
as Andrew Benson, Director, Producer
Dead Again
as Roman Strauss / Mike Church, Director
Discovering Hamlet
as Himself / Hamlet
Henry V
as Henry V, Director, Writer
Look Back in Anger
as Jimmy Porter
Thames Wallah
as Narrator
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
Stage Director, Director
A Month in the Country
as James Moon
High Season
as Rick
Ghosts
as Oswald Alving
The Lady's Not For Burning
as Thomas Mendip
Lorna
as Billy Martin
Coming Through
as D.H. Lawrence
A Coming to Terms for Billy
as Billy Martin
A Matter of Choice for Billy
as Billy Martin
To the Lighthouse
as Charles Tansley
Easter 2016
as Student
Too Late to Talk to Billy
as Billy Martin
Chariots of Fire
as Cambridge Student at Society Day (uncredited)