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Benedict Cumberbatch to host Laureus World Sports Awards

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Hugely popular film and TV actor Benedict Cumberbatch is to host next month’s Laureus World Sports Awards in Shanghai.
Fresh from his latest triumph, playing Bletchley Park scientist Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, which won him Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, Cumberbatch will present the world’s most prestigious sports awards event for the second straight year.
Benedict said: “I am delighted the selectors have picked me again to be part of the team for such an important event for the second straight year. We all admire the achievements of the greatest sportsmen and women that we meet, so to be able to share the stage for such a signature moment for them is a treat for me.
I am a big sports enthusiast and last year was a real pleasure for me. I met Tony Hawk, my childhood hero, and had the chance to swap a few running tips with Sebastian Coe and Daley Thompson. And of course it is all for such a good cause. The work Laureus does around the world, using sport to improve the lives of young people, is an inspiration and I am delighted to be part of this very special event.
Benedict has appeared in a series of highly successful films over the last few years, including the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and the Academy Award nominated August: Osage County. In addition he has appeared as Julian Assange in the Wikileaks movie The Fifth Estate and as the Dragon Smaug, in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, plus, of course, his role as Sherlock Holmes in the highly successful TV drama Sherlock.
He has also appeared in Atonement (2007), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), and is about to star as Hamlet in London’s West End.
A great supporter of charities, Benedict is an ambassador for the Prince's Trust which aims to help disadvantaged young people in the United Kingdom. After playing scientist Stephen Hawking in the TV production of Hawking in 2004, he has been an active supporter and patron of the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

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