The Cast of Sherlock: Where Are They Now?
The whip-smart series Sherlock became an international phenomenon after premiering in 2010 on MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS—and fans are still binge-watching it. “The fuss is justified,” says Newsday. The runaway hit show earned nine Emmy® Awards, including one for actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s breakout performance as the iconic consulting detective. Scroll down to see what Cumberbatch and castmates Martin Freeman, Andrew Scott, Mark Gatiss, and others have gone on to do.
Stream full episodes of Sherlock on the PBS App or with PBS Passport to relish a cast The San Francisco Chronicle says delivers “superior performances.”
- 1.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Cumberbatch earned a huge US following with his starring role as Sherlock Holmes on MASTERPIECE Mystery! He was “already one of the most admired actors of his generation and universally tipped for stardom,” Sherlock’s co-creator Steven Moffat told NPR’s Fresh Air. “We were the lucky ones who gave him the breakthrough part.”
“Sherlock propelled him into the stratosphere,” says The Guardian (UK). “Within minutes of the BBC airing of [Sherlock], … his name was trending on Twitter.” Cumberbatch started appearing in celebrated films including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Star Trek into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave, The Imitation Game, Doctor Strange, the Avengers series, The Power of the Dog, and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. His television roles since Sherlock include The Child in Time, which aired on MASTERPIECE in 2017, The Hollow Crown, and Patrick Melrose. The prolific actor has also sold out stage productions ranging from Hamlet to Frankenstein.
Benedict Cumberbatch started his own production company, SunnyMarch, in 2013, which is behind recent films like 2020’s The Courier where he stars with Rachel Brosnahan and Jessie Buckley, and 2021’s The Mauritanian with Jodi Foster and Shailene Woodley. He currently has several films in production.
- 2.
Martin Freeman
Freeman co-stars in Sherlock as the pragmatic Dr. John Watson, a role earning him the 2014 Emmy® Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. Even before his turn as Holmes’s faithful friend Watson, Martin Freeman had broken out as the prank-loving sales rep Tim Canterbury in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s original hit version of The Office and in films including 2003’s Love Actually and 2005’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Since Sherlock, Freeman has gone on to play Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit film trilogy and CIA agent Everett Ross in the Black Panther films, among other noteworthy roles. He regularly appears on the small screen, too, in series like the parenting comedy Breeders, which he created and executive produced; the TV adaptation of Fargo; and his current show, The Responder. Freeman also juggles roles in live theater and when asked by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts which medium is his favorite, says, “I don’t know that I have a first love. … it’s like children, you love them all equally.”
- 3.
Andrew Scott
Scott started his career in a TV ad for porridge at age 6, but his breakthrough finally came with a scene-stealing portrayal of villain Jim Moriarty in Sherlock. His Moriarty is an internet terrorist with a sing-song voice and an eccentric genius to match Holmes’s. Scott won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award (BAFTA) for the role and “has become one of our most reliably excellent actors,” according to The New York Times.
The Irish actor has gone on to famously play the so-called “hot priest” in Fleabag opposite Phoebe Waller-Bridge, for which he won 2020’s Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series; a lonely screenwriter trying to tell the story of his dead parents in 2023’s All of Us Strangers; and the sociopathic con man Tom Ripley in 2024’s Ripley. “[In acting], I like the idea that you can reveal yourself without having to reveal yourself,” Scott tells CBS Mornings. “The more I act, the more I believe that it isn’t about pretending to be somebody else but finding that person within you.”
- 4.
Mark Gatiss
Gatiss not only seamlessly steps into the role of elder brother (and genius) Mycroft Holmes in Sherlock, but he also co-created/wrote the show! Gatiss and co-creator/writer Steven Moffat are long-time Sherlock Holmes devotees and relished the entertaining challenge of placing the brainy consulting detective in 21st century London. The two won 2014’s Emmy® Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special. Their “intricate plots (many updated versions of old favorites), fast pacing and smart, witty writing make Sherlock one of the most dazzling confections on TV,” says The Wall Street Journal.
Gatiss’s multi-faceted career on stage and screen continued apace after Sherlock. He co-created 2020’s miniseries Dracula with Moffat and went on writing episodes of Doctor Who. On the small screen, Gatiss appeared in Game of Thrones and in MASTERPIECE’s Wolf Hall alongside Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance, Nolly with Helena Bonham Carter, and the cast of Moonflower Murders. Gatiss’s film work includes 2018’s The Favourite, 2020’s The Father, and 2023’s Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One.
Beyond acting and screenwriting, Mark Gatiss is also a comedian, director, producer, playwright, and novelist.
- 5.
Amanda Abbington
Abbington co-stars in Sherlock with her then-partner in real life, Martin Freeman. She portrays the impressive Mary Morstan who becomes John Watson’s wife in Season 3. Abbington readily admits in interviews that nepotism was involved in her landing the role. Deadline reports that Sherlock creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat had tried to figure out who the best person would be to play Mary and wound up deciding it would be the person who was [actually] going out with Martin.
Like her Sherlock castmates, Abbington hasn’t slowed down, moving on to TV series like After You’ve Gone and MASTERPIECE’s period drama Mr. Selfridge where she plays lovelorn Miss Mardle, along with stage work and films including Agatha Christie’s Crooked House alongside Glenn Close and Gillian Anderson. “I love flawed characters…someone with a bit of an edge. They’re more interesting to play. Nobody really wants to see a nice character all the time because it’s boring and vanilla, and I hate vanilla,” the actor tells the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
- 6.
Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves worked steadily in TV and movies for decades before taking the part of level-headed (if a bit unimaginative) Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade in Sherlock. Viewers may remember Graves as Freddy Honeychurch in Merchant/Ivory’s 1985 Room with a View when The Independent (UK) says he “became a staple element in English period drama,” or from numerous MASTERPIECE productions beginning with his lead role in 2002’s The Forsyte Saga as artsy young Jolyn to guest appearances in Mystery! series like Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, and Wallander.
Since Sherlock, Graves has stayed quite busy in theater and on TV shows from Scott & Bailey to The White Queen and Last Tango in Halifax. His recent film work includes 2020’s Emma with Ana Taylor-Joy. Graves has also written screen plays and directed. Asked by The Guardian (UK) what he considers his greatest achievement, Graves says, “Remembering to do things in order, because I have to transcend my nature, which is haphazard.”
- 7.
Louise Brealey
Brealey’s character, the selfless morgue technician Molly Hooper, was only intended to appear in the very first episode of Sherlock; her performance earned her a spot in the regular cast. “Molly is every woman of a certain age sitting at home on the settee fantasizing about running their hands through Benedict Cumberbatch’s hair,” Brealey tells The Guardian (UK). “Also, I think most people have experienced the agony and the ignominy of unrequited love. … I’ve never thought Molly was an idiot. She just really, really loves him.”
Brealey was on stage and screen before Sherlock and since. Her film work includes 2022’s Brian and Charles and 2011’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and she’s had a multitude of roles on British TV series like Such Brave Girls, Lockwood & Co., and Ripper Street, among others.
Besides acting, Brealey writes screenplays and is a published journalist, contributing reviews and features about cinema, art, and music to UK media outlets.
- 8.
Una Stubbs
Stubbs is indelible as 221B Baker Street’s concerned landlady Mrs. Hudson in Sherlock. Series co-creator Steven Moffat tells Radio Times he’d wanted to hire someone who could “punch through” in the role. “She owned any scene she was in,” he said. “She was fond of the fact her part in Sherlock was limited screen time, maximum impact.”
Stubbs’s lengthy career began as a chorus girl and pantomime who parlayed her talents into a diverse career on the classical stage, on British TV shows from Fawlty Towers to EastEnders, and in films spanning 1983’s The Wind in the Willows to 2016’s Golden Years. After Sherlock wrapped in 2017, MASTERPIECE viewers saw Stubbs again in The Durrells in Corfu when she played Mrs. Haddock.
Una Stubbs’s artistic talents included painting and embroidery; she wrote two books on the latter. She died in 2021 at age 84.
