Kenneth Branagh
In 1985 he co-founded the Renaissance Theatre Company. Productions which Branagh either wrote, starred in or directed include: Public Enemy, Twelfth Night, The Life of Napoleon, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Hamlet, Look Back in Anger, Uncle Vanya, King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Coriolanus.
His first venture into film met with instant success when his 1989 production of Henry V won a score of international awards including Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Director.
Branagh was subsequently invited to Hollywood to direct and star in Dead Again, before returning to England to direct the ensemble film Peters Friends, which won the Evening Standard Peters Sellers Award for Comedy. His second Shakespearean film success was Much Ado About Nothing and in the same year his short film of the Chekhov play Swan Song received an Academy Award nomination.
He went on to direct Robert De Niro in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. His black and white film In The Bleak Midwinter (A Midwinter's Tale) opened the 1996 Sundance Film Festival and won the prestigious Osello d'Oro at the Venice Film Festival. His critically acclaimed full-length version of Hamlet in 70mm, received four Academy Award nominations. In 2000 Branagh directed his fourth Shakespeare film adaptation – a 1930s musical version of Love Labour's Lost.
Branagh's other film work includes acting roles in: Pat O'Connor's A Month in the Country; Oliver Parker's Othello; Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man; Woody Allen's Celebrity; Danny Boyle's Alien Love Triangle; Paul Greengrass' The Theory of Flight; Barry Sonnenfeld's Wild Wild West; Michael Kalesniko's How to Kill Your Neighbour's Dog and Philip Noyce's Rabbit Proof Fence.
In addition to Channel 4 and A&E's television epic Shackleton, Branagh has recently appeared in the HBO/BBC drama Conspiracy, for which he won an Emmy as Best Actor and a Golden Globe nomination.
Most recently, he has directed the hit stage comedy in London's West End The Play What I Wrote, which won two Olivier Awards. He has just completed starring in Michael Grandage's sell-out production of Richard III at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Branagh received rave notices for his return to the stage after a ten-year absence.
Kenneth Branagh Facts
| Birth Name | Kenneth Charles Branagh |
| Occupation | Actor, Director |
| Birthday | December 10, 1960 (48) |
| Sign | Sagittarius |
| Birthplace | Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom |
| Height | 5' 10" (1m78) |
| Awards | 2001 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie (for Conspiracy) |
| 1990 BAFTA Awards: Best Direction (for Henry V) |