Sophie Hunter

Sophie Hunter
Hunter in December 2014
Born	Sophie Irene Hunter (1978-03-16) 16 March 1978 (age 38) Hammersmith, London, England, UK
Education	St Paul's Girls' School
Alma mater	Oxford University L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq
Occupation	Theatre and opera director, playwright
Spouse(s)	Benedict Cumberbatch (m. 2015)
Children	1
Family	Julius Drake (uncle) Michael Gow (maternal grandfather) J. E. B. Seely (great-great grandfather)

Sophie Irene Hunter (born 16 March 1978) is an English avant-garde theatre and opera director, playwright, and former performer. She made her directorial debut in 2007 co-directing the experimental play The Terrific Electric at the Barbican Pit after her theatre company Boileroom was granted the Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award. In addition, she has directed an Off-Off-Broadway revival of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts (2010) at Access Theatre, the performance art titled Lucretia (2011) based on Benjamin Britten's opera The Rape of Lucretia at Location One's Abramovic Studio in New York City, and the Phantom Limb Company's 69° South also known as Shackleton Project (2011) which premièred at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre and later toured North America.

In August 2015, Hunter directed Phaedra and The Turn of the Screw to critical acclaim for the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival and Aldeburgh Music, respectively.

Hunter was born in Hammersmith, west London, the daughter of Anna Katharine (née Gow) and Charles Rupert. The couple later divorced. She has two younger brothers, Timothy and Patrick as well as two half-siblings from her father's second marriage. She is a niece of pianist Julius Drake. Her maternal grandfather is the General Sir Michael James Gow GCB, who worked with Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester in the 1950s and was Aide-de-Camp General to the Queen from 1981 to 1984. Hunter's maternal great-great grandfather was World War I politician J. E. B. Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone.