Sophie Hunter

Sophie Hunter played Venessa in the Torchwood television story Children of Earth: Day Four.

Her parents are Anna Katharine (née Gow) and Charles Rupert Hunter.

She is granddaughter to General Sir Michael James Gow, Aide-de-Camp General to the Queen from 1981 to 1984, and great-great granddaughter to John Edward "Galloper Jack" Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone, an important figure in political and military circles of early twentieth century Britain. She is niece to renowned pianist Julius Drake and to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Malcolm Ross GVCO, OBE, Extra Equerry to the Queen. Hunter's family is also related to Jane Birkin's family.

She attended St. Paul's Girl School in London and then graduated at Oxford with a Masters Degree in French and Italian.

She later moved to Paris to study at the École internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.

She more recently trained at Saratoga International Theatre School under Anne Bogart.

In 2015 she got married to a long time friend: Benedict Cumberbatch.

Their first son, Christopher Carlton, was born on June 1st the same year.

Her work in theatre, film, television and music earned her praise across Europe and the USA.

In New York's Access Theatre she adapted and directed a new version of Ibsen's Ghosts (2010) and created an installation/performance of Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia (2011). Other credits include: Enron ( 2010 - Ass. Director - West End, Broadway) and The Terrific Electric (2007 - Barbican) for which she and her fellow artists of Boileroom were awarded the Oxford Samuel Beckett Award for new voices in experimental theatre. With her company she has devised and performed in international touring productions of Silverland (2007 - Arcola, Brits Off Broadway), Hamlet (2005 - Al Bustaan Festival, Beirut), Volpone (2001 - Avignon) and Ubu Roi (Baryshnikov Arts Center).

She was selected to be the 2011 British artist in residence at SoHo's Location One where she won the British Artist Fellowship.

Her roles in film and television include Torchwood (2009), Midsomer Murders (2004) The Curse of Steptoe (2008) and Henry VIII:Mind of a Tyrant (2009).

In 2004 she played Maria Osborne alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Reese Witherspoon in Vanity Fair.

She also took part in various independent productions such as Burlesque Fairytales (2009).

Sophie Hunter worked as a Creative Director on Loma Lights (2013) one of the largest public arts programs in New York and co- conceived Don't Major in Debt “Student House” (2012). She was one of the creative minds behind Punchdrunk's New York transfer of Emursive's Sleep No More and The Forgotten (2012)  an immersive theatre experience which launched the McKittrick Hotel's literary gatherings "Secret Sunday Salon".

She also serves as Collaborating Director and Conceiver to the Phantom Limb Company known for its work with marionette-puppetry focused on collaborative, multi-media theatrical production and design. With the Phantom Limb Company in 2013 Hunter took part in a month long residency in Captiva Island (Florida) with The Rauschenberg Foundation.

Her venture into the music industry includes The Isis Project (2005), Songs for a Boy(2011) and "Virtual Friend" in Armin Van Buuren's Mirage (2011).

Hunter's focus has now mainly shifted to Opera and Classical Music. In 2013 she was Creative Director for a preview of the still in-progress Tesla in New York by Jim Jarmusch and Phil Kline. In 2015 she directed Ruby Philogene,MBE, in Benjamin Britten's cantata Phaedra at the 4th Happy Days International Beckett Festival and Britten's The Turn of the Screw for Aldeburgh Music staged in Snape Maltings and London's St.Luke's baroque church.

Hunter co-founded Lacuna Theatre in 2007. She is Director at Boileroom. She is a member of the performance collective The Militia Canteen.