Kenneth Branagh is a Northern Irish actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He is known for his films adapting Shakespeare's plays, his adaptations of Hercule Poirot, and the film Belfast based on his own childhood. He was born in Belfast on 10 December 1960.
Driven by the conflict in Northern Ireland, his family moved to Reading, England, when he was nine years old. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, graduating in 1982. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984; In 1987, he founded the Renaissance Theater Company with David Parfitt.
Cinema career
He was nominated for an Oscar in both the best actor and best director categories for Henry V, which he directed and starred in in 1989. The following year, he published his memoir Beginning. In 1993 he made Much Fuss, in 1994 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and in 1996 he made a long adaptation of Hamlet based on the entire text; Hamlet received four Oscar nominations.
In 2002, he played Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. In 2011, he directed Marvel's Thor. He appeared as both director and Poirot in Agatha Christie adaptations, starting with Murder on the Orient Express in 2017; this was followed by Death on the Nile (2022) and Murder in Venice (2023). Belfast (2021), about his childhood, won him the Oscar for best original screenplay.
In 2023, he played physicist Niels Bohr in Oppenheimer. He holds a record by being nominated in seven different categories at the Academy Awards.
He was knighted in 2012 for his contributions to theater and drama and his charitable work in Northern Ireland. He continues to pursue acting and directing together.
