An alumnus of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Doyle's first feature film was Branagh's own 1989 breakthrough with an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V. They soon reunited for films such as the 1991 thriller Dead Again, 1993's Much Ado About Nothing, and the following year's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In the meantime, Doyle found work on Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner Indochine from 1992, 1993's Carlito's Way, and the Alfonso Cuarón children's classic A Little Princess, released in 1995. Another film from that year, Emma Thompson's retelling of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, earned Doyle his first Academy Award nomination. He got a second nomination a year later for the Branagh's four-hour film version of Hamlet.