Film
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor, known for Sherlock, The Imitation Game and Doctor Strange
Born 1976
Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America · CC BY-SA 2.0
Benedict Cumberbatch played Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series that made him internationally famous, and has since worked across blockbusters, biographical drama and Shakespeare. He was nominated for an Academy Award for playing Alan Turing.
Key achievements
- Academy Award nomination for The Imitation Game, 2015
- Played Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series, 2010–2017
Universities
Manchester
Took a degree in drama in 1999 before training further at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Facts
- He taught English at a Tibetan monastery in Darjeeling during a gap year before university.
- He played Alan Turing, who worked at the same university on one of the first stored-program computers.
- He was kidnapped at gunpoint while filming in South Africa in 2005 and talked his way out of it.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.