Meet Sophie Hunter, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Impressive Fiancee

Benedict Cumberbatch nonchalantly announced his engagement to Sophie Hunter in a British newspaper — adorbs — and now Cumberbatch fans far and wide are trying to learn all about his fiancee. While some may be disheartened that their Cumberbatch fantasies have been dashed, many are very happy for the Sherlock star, and rightfully so. BC is (not shockingly) marrying an impressive, talented, intelligent woman. Here’s a list of Hunter’s accomplishments:

1. Hunter, 36, directs avant-garde theater and opera productions

The theater director travels around the world directing and collaborating on plays, operas and marionette productions. Hunter received the 2007 Samuel Beckett award to write and co-direct her play The Terrific Electric. She’s worked on theater and opera productions across Europe, the Middle East and North America, including directing Henrik Ibsen‘s Ghosts and Mozart‘s The Magic Flute. One of the experimental plays she directed, 69° S.’ (The Shackleton Project), used marionettes manipulated by performers on stilts to depict Ernest Shackleton‘s expedition in Antarctica. It was produced by The Phantom Limb Company, a famous New York marionette company with whom Hunter often collaborates. (Because who doesn’t love puppets?)

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2. In addition to directing, Hunter has acted in theater, film and television

One of her roles included acting alongside the one and only Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2009 film Burlesque Fairytales. (More on this to come — just you wait.) She also acted in Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon and a short film with David Tennant called Traffic Warden.

3. She’s had a stellar education

The theater director has a degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University, with concentrations in French and Italian. She trained and studied theater at the Jacques Lecoq school in Paris and the Saratoga International Theater Institute in NYC. (What an underachiever.)

4. She sings beautifully in French, like a boss

Hunter made a French-language music album called The Isis Project with songwriter Guy Chambers. 

5. Together, she and BC can predict the future

Check out this fortune-telling clip from their Burlesque Fairytales movie. Why, yes, “adverts” can be quite striking and unusual, can’t they?

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