Profile photo of Kenneth Branagh

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).

Filmography

2026
The Devil Wears Prada 2
Movie
2025
Tea with Judi Dench

as Self

Movie
2025
The King of Kings

as Charles Dickens (voice)

Movie
2023
A Haunting in Venice

as Hercule Poirot

Movie
2023
Oppenheimer

as Niels Bohr

Movie
2022
Death on the Nile

as Hercule Poirot

Movie
2020
Tenet

as Sator

Movie
2018
All Is True

as William Shakespeare

Movie
2017
Murder on the Orient Express

as Hercule Poirot

Movie
2017
Dunkirk

as Commander Bolton

Movie
2014
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

as Viktor Cherevin

Movie
2008
Valkyrie

as Henning von Tresckow

Movie
2002
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

as Gilderoy Lockhart

Movie
2000
The Road to El Dorado

as Miguel (voice)

Movie
1991
Dead Again

as Roman Strauss / Mike Church

Movie
2025
The American Revolution

as voice

TV Show