Saturday Night Live Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch CBE (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. Known for his work on screen and stage, he has received various accolades, including a BAFTA TV Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Film Awards and four Golden Globes. In 2014, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2015, he was appointed a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to the performing arts and to charity.

Cumberbatch studied drama at the Victoria University of Manchester and obtained a Master of Arts in classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He began acting in Shakespearean theatre productions before making his West End debut in Richard Eyre's revival of Hedda Gabler in 2005. Since then, he has starred in Royal National Theatre productions of After the Dance (2010) and Frankenstein (2011), winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for the latter. In 2015, he played the title role in Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre.

Cumberbatch's television work includes his performance as Stephen Hawking in the film Hawking (2004). He gained wide recognition for portraying Sherlock Holmes in the series Sherlock from 2010 to 2017, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. For playing the title role in the miniseries Patrick Melrose (2018), he won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor.

In films, he received Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his performances as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (2014) and as a volatile rancher in The Power of the Dog (2021). He also acted in the dramas Amazing Grace (2006), Atonement (2007), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Current War (2017), 1917 (2019) and The Courier (2020). He has starred in numerous blockbuster films portraying Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Smaug and Sauron in The Hobbit film series. Since 2016, he has played Dr. Stephen Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the films Doctor Strange (2016) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

He made his hosting debut Saturday Night Live on November 5, 2016, the fifth episode of SNL's 42nd season with his musical guest Solange.

He returned to Saturday Night Live to hosting six years later for the 2nd time, on May 7, 2022, the nineteenth episode and the Mother's Day show of SNL's 47th season, with musical guests Arcade Fire.

Gallery[]

Advertisement