Kenneth Branagh /

Kenneth Charles Branagh (pronounced /ˈbrænə/; born 10 December 1960) is a Northern Irish-born English actor and film director. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays, but has also directed and appeared in a number of other films and television series. Branagh, the middle of three children, was born and brought up in Belfast, the son of working class Protestant parents Frances (née Harper) and William Branagh, a plumber and joiner who ran a company that specialised in fitting partitions and suspended ceilings. At the age of nine, he relocated with his family to Reading, Berkshire to escape the Troubles. He was educated at Grove Primary School, Whiteknights Primary School, then Meadway School, Tilehurst, where he appeared in school productions such as Toad of Toad Hall" and Oh, What a Lovely War!. At school, he acquired 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 Irish heritage. Branagh went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a B.A. Fine Arts Degree.