Benedict Cumberbatch was born on July 19, 1976, in Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, London to Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham.
Benedict Cumberbatch attended Brambletye School in West Sussex and was an arts scholar at Harrow School. Benedict Cumberbatch was involved in numerous Shakespearean works at school and made his acting debut as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in a Midsummer Night’s Dream when he was 12.
Benedict Cumberbatch has received various accolades throughout his career, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a British Academy Television Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.
Benedict Cumberbatch won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Frankenstein and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for Sherlock and in 2015, he was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
Why is Benedict Cumberbatch’s last name Cumberbatch?
The name Cumberbatch originates from their Barbados ancestors. An ancestor who lived between 1726-1785 called Abraham Carlton changed his surname to Abraham Carlton Cumberbatch, by royal assent in 1753.
This was in order to inherit the family plantation in Barbados under the terms of his grandfather’s will as there was no male descendants.