Kenneth Branagh Set for Special Olivier Award Honor

Kenneth Branagh is set to receive the Special Award at the Olivier Awards on April 9 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The award is being presented in recognition of his outstanding contribution to British theater.

Branagh was honored with the award for Best Newcomer by the Olivier Awards in 1982. The acclaimed actor and director’s stage acting credits include Another Country, Henry V, Golden Girls, three productions of Hamlet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Public Enemy, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Look Back in Anger, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Coriolanus, Richard III, Edmond, Ivanov, The Painkiller and Macbeth. He also has numerous credits as a director, including The Life of Napoleon and Napoleon - The American Story, Twelfth Night, Uncle Vanya, The Play What I Wrote and more.

Most recently, the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company put on its inaugural West End season with Plays at the Garrick. The 2016 season comprised seven plays, received eight Olivier Award nominations and three productions—The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet and The Entertainer—were seen in movie theaters across the world by over 430,000 people.

Past recipients of the Special Award include Kevin Spacey, Stephen Sondheim, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen.

The Society of London Theatre, which runs the Olivier Awards, will also be presenting four highly respected industry figures: Victor and Lilian Hochhauser (joint recipients), Richard Bullimore and Frank Dunlop with Special Recognition Awards during the nominees celebration on March 10

Nominations for the Olivier Awards will be announced on March 6 by 2016 winners Denise and Matt Henry.