I started being interested in acting when I heard the voices of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud and Sir Alec Guinness. I've had the great privilege of working with Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Anthony Hopkins. These are people who inspire the work that I do.

In 2011 Branagh portrayed Sir Laurence Olivier in My Week with Marilyn. This Twelfth Night was later adapted for television. Others included Jonathan Pryce Juliet Stevenson Alan Rickman Anton Lesser Bruce Payne and Fiona Shaw.

He has directed or starred in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V (1989) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Director) Much Ado About Nothing (1993) Othello (1995) Hamlet (1996) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay) Love's Labour's Lost (2000) and As You Like It (2006). Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (/ˈbrænə/ BRAN-ə; born 10 December 1960) is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland.