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

• 2027The Thomas Crown Affair
• 2026Atonement — Michael Reid
• 2026Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean — David Lean (voice)
• 2026Mayday — Nikolai Ustinov
• 2026The Devil Wears Prada 2 — Stuart
• The American Revolution — (voice)
• 2025The King of Kings — Charles Dickens (voice)
• 2023A Haunting in Venice — Hercule Poirot, Director, Producer
• BLUE EYE SAMURAI — Abijah Fowler (voice)
• 2023Oppenheimer — Niels Bohr
• 2022Death on the Nile — Hercule Poirot, Director, Producer
• 2022Fireheart — Shawn Nolan (voice)
• This England — Boris Johnson
• 2021Belfast — Producer, Writer, Director
• 2020Artemis Fowl — Director, Producer
• 2020Tenet — Sator
• 2019Lost Lives — Narrator
• 2018All Is True — William Shakespeare, Director, Producer
• 2018Avengers: Infinity War — Asgardian Distress Call (voice) (uncredited)
• 2017Dunkirk — Commander Bolton
• 2017Murder on the Orient Express — Hercule Poirot, Director, Producer
• 2016Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet — Director
• 2016Branagh Theatre Live: The Entertainer — Archie Rice
• 2015Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale — Leontes, Director
• 2015Cinderella — Director
• 2014Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit — Viktor Cherevin, Director
• 2013National Theatre Live: Macbeth — Macbeth, Stage Director
• 2013Thor: The Dark World — Producer
• 2012London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder — Isambard Kingdom Brunel
• 2012Stars in Shorts — Mark Snow
• 2011Discovering Hamlet — Hamlet (archive footage)
• 2011My Week with Marilyn — Sir Laurence Olivier
• 2011Prodigal — Mark Snow
• 2011Thor — Director
• 20091939: Hollywood's Greatest Year — Narrator (voice)
• 2009The Boat That Rocked — Dormandy
• 10 Days to War — Colonel Tim Collins
• 2008Alien Love Triangle — Steven Chesterman
• 2008Valkyrie — Henning von Tresckow
• Wallander — Kurt Wallander, Executive Producer
• 2007Sleuth — Other Man on T.V., Director, Producer
• 2006As You Like It — Self (voice), Writer, Director, Producer
• 2006The Magic Flute — Screenplay, Director, Adaptation, Producer
• 2005The Goebbels Experiment — Narrator (voice)
• 2005Walking with Monsters — Narrator (voice)
• Walking with Monsters — Narrator (voice), Acting Double
• 2005Warm Springs — Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• 2004Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic — Narrator (voice)
• 2004Five Children and It — Uncle Albert
• 2003Listening — Writer, Director
• World War I in Colour — Narrator
• 2002Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — Gilderoy Lockhart
• 2002How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog — Peter McGowan
• 2002Rabbit-Proof Fence — A. O. Neville
• Shackleton — Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
• 2002The Tramp and the Dictator — Narrator (voice)
• 2001Conspiracy — Reinhard Heydrich
• 2001Schneider's 2nd Stage — Joseph Barnett
• 2001The Beasts Within — Narrator (voice)
• 2001Triumph of the Beasts — Narrator (voice)
• Walking with Beasts — Narrator
• Big Al — Narrator
• 2000Love's Labour's Lost — Berowne, Writer, Director, Producer, Screenplay
• 2000The Book That Wrote Itself — Kenneth Branagh
• 2000The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs — Narrator
• 2000The Road to El Dorado — Miguel (voice)
• 1999IMAX: Galapagos 3D — Narrator
• 1999The Periwig-Maker — Periwig-maker (voice)
• 1999The Theory of Flight — Richard
• 1999Wild Wild West — Dr. Arliss Loveless
• 1998Celebrity — Lee Simon
• Cold War
• 1998The Dance of Shiva — Colonel Evans
• 1998The Gingerbread Man — Rick Magruder
• 1998The Proposition — Father Michael McKinnon
• 1998Universal Horror — Narrator
• 1996Hamlet — Prince Hamlet, Director, Adaptation
• TFI Friday
• 1995Anne Frank Remembered — Narration (voice)
• Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood
• 1995In the Bleak Midwinter — Director, Writer
• 1995Othello — Iago
• 1995Shadow of a Gunman — Donal Davoren
• 1994Mary Shelley's Frankenstein — Victor Frankenstein, Director, Co-Producer
• 1993Much Ado About Nothing — Benedick, Director, Producer, Writer
• 1993Swing Kids — Herr Knopp, Gestapo (uncredited)
• 1992Peter's Friends — Andrew Benson, Director, Producer
• 1992Swan Song — Director
• 1992Symphony for the Spire
• 1991Dead Again — Roman Strauss / Mike Church, Director
• Performance — Donal Davoren
• 1989Henry V — Henry V, Director, Writer
• 1989Look Back in Anger — Jimmy Porter
• American Experience — Narrator (voice)
• Strange Interlude — Gordon Evans
• 1988Thames Wallah — Narrator
• 1988Twelfth Night, or What You Will — Stage Director
• 1987A Month in the Country — James Moon
• Fortunes of War — Guy Pringle
• 1987Ghosts — Oswald Alving
• 1987High Season — Rick
• 1987Lorna — Billy Martin
• 1987The Lady's Not For Burning — Thomas Mendip
• 1985Coming Through — D.H. Lawrence
• Theatre Night — Oswald Alving
• 1984A Coming to Terms for Billy — Billy Martin
• The Boy in the Bush — Jack Grant
• 1983A Matter of Choice for Billy — Billy Martin
• 1983To the Lighthouse — Charles Tansley
• American Playhouse — Gordon Evans
• 1982Easter 2016 — Student
• 1982Too Late to Talk to Billy — Billy Martin
• 1981Chariots of Fire — Cambridge Student at Society Day (uncredited)
• Play for Today
• Omnibus
• Allosaurus A Walking With Dinosaurs Special — Narrator
• Goblin — (voice)
• Laird — Laird of Castle Drummoch, Executive Producer
• The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde — Director, Screenplay

Appearances as themselves (47)

• 2025Tea with Judi Dench featuring Kenneth Branagh — Self
• 2022Denzel Washington: A Model American — Self
• 2022Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba — Self
• Remembers… — Self
• 2020Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of ‘Tenet’ — Self
• The Kelly Clarkson Show — Self
• 2018Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years - More Than a Hero — Self
• 2016Mindhorn — Himself
• Hot Ones — Self
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — Self
• Late Night with Seth Meyers — Self
• 2014Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe — Self
• 2011Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope — Self
• 2011Thor: From Asgard to Earth — Self
• 2010With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story — Self
• 2009A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics — Self
• 2009A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers — Self
• 2007James Ellis: An Actor's Life — Himself
• 2007Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out — Self
• The Graham Norton Show — Self, Self - Guest
• El hormiguero — Self
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson — Self
• Parkinson — Self - Guest
• 2004The Magic Touch of Harry Potter — Self
• 2003Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence — Himself / Narrator
• Real Time with Bill Maher — Self
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show — Self
• 2000Altman on His Own Terms — Self
• 2000Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces — Self / Narrator
• 1999It's a Whole New West: The Making of 'Wild, Wild West' — Self
• Walking with Dinosaurs — Self - Narrator (voice)
• 1999Wild Wild West: Evil Devices — Himself
• 1999Wild Wild West: Loveless's Ladies — Himself
• Parkinson — Self
• Leute heute — Self
• The View — Self
• 1996Looking for Richard — Self - Interviewee
• 1994It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein — Self
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien — Self - Guest
• 1990Discovering Hamlet — Himself / Hamlet
• Thompson — Self
• Wogan — Self
• Film '72 — Self
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson — Self
• Tony Awards — Self
• The Oscars — Self
• Golden Globe Awards — Self - Nominee