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 Timess list of Irelands greatest film actors Branagh has directed and starred in several film adaptations of William Shakespeares 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 Peters Friends 1992 Mary Shelleys Frankenstein 1994 Thor 2011 and Cinderella 2015 For his semiautobiographical 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 2017present 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 Nolans 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 20082016 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