Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English film, television and theatre actor, voice artist and…Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English film, television and theatre actor, voice artist and producer. His first West End theatre performance was as George Tesman in Sir Richard Eyre's revival of Hedda Gabler in 2005. Since then, he has had leading roles in Royal National Theatre productions After the Dance (2010) and Danny Boyle's Frankenstein (2011). His first main part on television was as the title character in Hawking in 2004. This was followed by notable television portrayals of Sherlock Holmes in the series Sherlock since 2010 and Christopher Tietjens in Sir Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Parade's End in 2012. His first major film role was William Pitt the Younger in Amazing Grace in 2006 and he has since appeared in the films Atonement (2007), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011). Since 2012, he has portrayed the characters of Smaug and the Necromancer through voice and motion capture in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy. In 2013, he featured in the films Star Trek Into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave and August: Osage County. In the same year, he played the lead character of Julian Assange in DreamWorks' The Fifth Estate.