Benedict Cumberbatch was born in England in 1976 and has been cast to play the role of Major Jamie Stewart in War Horse.
Both of Cumberbatch’s parents are actors, which doesn’t come as surprising considering the amount of talent he has.
Cumberbatch attended boarding schools from the age of 8 and started showing his talent even back then – he was involved in numerous plays and his drama teacher described him as ‘the best schoolboy actor’ he’d ever worked with!
After finishing high school, Cumberbatch took a gap year and volunteered as an English teacher in a Tibetan monastery in India. Afterward, he attended the University of Manchester where he studied Drama. Later on, Cumberbatch continued pursuing an MA in Classical Acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Cumberbatch’s work is so diverse that so far, apart from movie appearances, he’s also performed on television, theatre, and radio. His West End debut was in the play Hedda Gabler in 2005. His role of Stephen Hawking in the television film Hawking in 2004 was the one who brought him more international recognition and led him on the path to fame.
Since then, he’s worked on numerous movies and TV shows. However, his popularity went through the roof with his role of Sherlock Holmes in the detective TV show Sherlock, that’s been airing since 2010.
His most famous movie roles include 12 Years a Slave, The Fifth Estate, and The Imitation Game, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Apart from that Cumberbatch has received multiple other nominations and awards for his acting, including nominations six BAFTA nominations and two Golden Globe Award nominations.