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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).
As director
A Haunting in Venice
Death on the Nile
Belfast
Artemis Fowl
All Is True
Murder on the Orient Express
Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet
Cinderella
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Thor
Sleuth
The Magic Flute
As You Like It
Listening
Love's Labour's Lost
Hamlet
In the Bleak Midwinter
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Much Ado About Nothing
Peter's Friends
Swan Song
Dead Again
Henry V
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde
As actor
The Thomas Crown Affair
Mayday
Atonement
The Devil Wears Prada 2
Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean
The King of Kings
Tea with Judi Dench
A Haunting in Venice
Oppenheimer
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
Denzel Washington: A Model American
Death on the Nile
Fireheart
Tenet
Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of ‘Tenet’
Lost Lives
Avengers: Infinity War
All Is True
Dunkirk
Murder on the Orient Express
Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer
Mindhorn
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder
Stars in Shorts
Marvel Studios: Building a Cinematic Universe
My Week with Marilyn