Kenneth Charles Branagh (born
10 December 1960) is an
Emmy Award-winning,
Academy Award-nominated
Northern Irish actor and
film director.
Early life
Branagh, the second of three children, was born and raised in
Belfast to
working-class Protestant parents Frances (née Harper) and William Branagh, who was a plumber and
carpenter, and ran a company that specialised in fitting partitions and suspended ceilings.
[Kenneth Branagh Biography][Kenneth Branagh Biography (1960-)] He was educated at
Grove Primary School.
[White, p.2] At the age of nine, he relocated with his family to
Reading in
England to escape "
the Troubles".
[The Kenneth Branagh Compendium: Conspiracy][White p.3] At school, he affected an English accent to avoid bullying. On his identity today he has said, "I feel Irish. I don't think you can take Belfast out of the boy," and he attributes his "love of words" to his Irishness.
[The Times, 20 February, 2000]He is Honorary President of
NICVA (the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action.) He received an honorary Doctorate in Literature from
Queen's University of Belfast in 1990. He is also a patron for the charity Over The Wall.
[Over The Wall official website]
