Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (/ˈbrænə/ BRAN-ə; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) 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, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Olivier Award. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours 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' list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
He 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 Best Director and won Best Original Screenplay.
Branagh directed and starred as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Death on the Nile (2022), and A Haunting in Venice (2023). 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), Rabbit-Proof Fence (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), and the BBC One series Wallander (2008–2016). He received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and an International Emmy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich in the HBO film Conspiracy (2001). He also received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for his role as Franklin D. Roosevelt in the television film Warm Springs (2005).
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2025
as Charles Dickens (voice)
2023
as Abijah Fowler (voice)
2023
as Hercule Poirot
2023
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2022
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2022
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2022
as Boris Johnson
2022
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2022
as Hercule Poirot
2022
as Shawn Nolan (voice)
2020
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2020
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2019
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2018
as Asgardian Distress Call (voice) (uncredited)
2017
as Hercule Poirot
2017
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2016
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2016
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2016
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2015
as Leontes
2014
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2014
as Viktor Cherevin
2013
as Macbeth, Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, general in the King's army
2012
as Mark Snow
2012
as Isambard Kingdom Brunel
2012
as Hercules Poirot (archive footage)
2011
as Sir Laurence Olivier
2011
as Hamlet (archive footage)
2011
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2011
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2011
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2010
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2009
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2009
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2009
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2009
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2008
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2008
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2008
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2008
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2007
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2007
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2007
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2006
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2005
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2005
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2005
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2004
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2004
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2003
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2003
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2002
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2002
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2002
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2002
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2002
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2001
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2001
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2001
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2001
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2001
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2000
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2000
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2000
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2000
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2000
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2000
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1999
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1999
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1999
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1999
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1999
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1999
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1999
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1998
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1998
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1998
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1998
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1996
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1996
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1995
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1995
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1994
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1994
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1993
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1993
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1992
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1991
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1991
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1990
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1989
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1989
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1988
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1988
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1988
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1988
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1987
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1987
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1987
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1987
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1987
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1987
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1985
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1985
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1984
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1984
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1983
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1983
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1982
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1982
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1981
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1970
1956
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1953
as Self