Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Charles Branagh was born on 10 December 1960 in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and later served as its president from 2015 to 2024. Branagh has received numerous awards, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Olivier Award. He was knighted as a Knight Bachelor in 2012 and granted the Freedom of the City of Belfast in 2018. In 2020, he was listed at number 20 on The Irish Times's ranking 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 received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Director for *Henry V* and for Best Adapted Screenplay for *Hamlet*. He directed *Swan Song* (1992), which was nominated 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). His semi-autobiographical film *Belfast* (2021) earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, and he won the Best Original Screenplay award.

Branagh directed and starred as Hercule Poirot in the film series (2017–present). He has also appeared 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 performance as Laurence Olivier in *My Week with Marilyn* (2011) earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He has played supporting roles in Christopher Nolan's *Dunkirk* (2017), *Tenet* (2020), and *Oppenheimer* (2023).

Branagh has appeared 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 his portrayal of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich in the HBO film *Conspiracy* (2001).