5 Things Only Diehard Benedict Cumberbatch Fans Know About Him

Dec. 11, 2014— -- intro: Don't worry if you're just discovering Benedict Cumberbatch. These days, the British thespian is everywhere.

The 38-year-old actor just picked up a Golden Globe nomination for "The Imitation Game," to go with his Screen Actor's Guild nomination Wednesday.

Last week, it was announced that he would take on the role of "Doctor Strange" in the Marvel film due out Nov. 4, 2016.

And on television, you can continue to catch him as Sherlock Holmes, the role that catapulted him to stardom and appearances in five major films last year: as part of the ensemble cast in "August: Osage County" and "12 Years a Slave," as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in "The Fifth Estate," as the villain Khan in "Star Trek Into Darkness" and as the bad-tempered dragon Smaug in "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug."

Diehard fans, though, have long known about Cumberbatch's great appeal, making him their favorite secret crush. His army of female fans call themselves “Cumberb**tches” and tweet about his activities using the hashtag “Cumberwatch."

Well now their secret is out. Cumberbatch, who recently announced his engagement to actress Sophie Hunter in The Times newspaper of London, has become one of Hollywood's most talked-about actors.

Here are five things even his biggest fans may not know about him.

quicklist:title: He Looks Good in a Dresstext: In Cumberbatch's first roles, he appeared in a dress. At the age of 9, he played Anne in "Half a Sixpence" with "a very bad wig," he told What's On Stage in 2005. "It was the first time I realized I looked good in girls' clothes." In his first substantial part, in boarding school at Harrow in London, he played "the queen of the fairies," or Titania in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," he told The New York Times in March.

quicklist:title: He Nearly Changed his Nametext: "It's actually my real family name," Cumberbatch told The Times newspaper of London in 2007 about his unusual last name. "When I first started I used the same surname, Carlton, that my father Timothy, who is an actor, uses. But I wasn't getting very far and when I changed agents, my new agent suggested I revert. I thought Benedict Cumberbatch sounded a bit bumbly and messy, but they said it's a great name, it will get people talking about you." He was right.

quicklist:title: If He Hadn't Become an Actortext: Both his parents, Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, tried to discourage Cumberbatch from following them in their profession as actors by sending him to Harrow to pursue academics. Well, we know how that turned out. But Cumberbatch said if he hadn't become an actor he would have like to have been a neurosurgeon. "It would have been nice to have done something useful, responsible, that required a mind-blowing skill, where something really important hangs in the balance," he told What's On Stage.

quicklist:title: What Roles He'd Still Like to Playtext: In 2005, when Cumberbatch's star was first rising in his native England, and he was moving from the London stage to the Hollywood screen, he told What's On Stage what roles he'd still like to play: "A young Nick Drake (the folk musician) - on film or telly. Play-wise, Oswald from Ghosts, Hamlet obviously. And why not Constantine (from The Seagull) as well." He may be too old to play Drake now, but he will appear at London's Barbican theater next fall as Hamlet. "I know it sounds wanky, but as an actor the more I do it [theater] the more I need to do it," he told The Times. "It's very painful, but you have to do it. It's very nourishing to be onstage, I get a hell of a kick. I'm just ambitious for the work to be good; I don't strategize."

quicklist:title: He'll Never Have a Chance to Work with His Favorite Directortext: In 2005, Cumberbatch cited Stanley Kubrick as his favorite director. "The reason would take 30,000 words---i.e. my dissertation," he told What's On Stage.