ULLMAN, TRACEY

ULLMAN, TRACEY (1959– ), British comedienne, actress, and singer. Ullman was born in Berkshire, England, to Dorin and attorney Antony Ullman, a Polish immigrant who died when Tracey was six. Her mother enrolled her in the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts at 12. Ullman dropped out at 16 and spent six months performing in a Berlin production of Gigi before returning to England, where she was cast in West End productions of Grease and The Rocky Horror Show. At 21, Ullman won the London Theatre Critics Award for her part in the improvisational play Four in a Million (1981). This led to roles on British television, including the BBC sketch comedy shows Three of a Kind (1981–83) and A Kick Up the Eighties (1981–84), as well as the ITV Jennifer Saunders-Dawn French sitcom Girls on Top (1985). Ullman recorded a comically romantic album under punk label Stiff Records, You Broke My Heart in Seventeen Places (1983), which featured the hit single "They Don't Know About Us." The song's video featured a cameo from Paul McCartney, who at the time was shooting Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984) with Ullman. After Ullman finished the Meryl Streep film Plenty (1985), she moved to Los Angeles with her husband and took time off to have her first child. Soon after, producer James L. Brooks helped her create the highly popular Sunday night variety show The Tracey Ullman Show (1987–90). The series received five Emmy nominations; earned Ullman a Golden Globe Award for best actress in 1988; and spun off one of America's longest-running animated series, The Simpsons. Ullman starred in I Love You to Death (1990) and appeared opposite Morgan Freeman in The Taming of the Shrew (1990) in Central Park. She made her Broadway debut in the one-woman show The Big Love (1991), which earned her a Drama Desk nomination. Ullman gave birth to a son in 1991. In 1993, she won an Emmy for her guest spot on the CBS sitcom Love & War, while 1994 saw her take another Emmy for her HBO special Tracey Ullman Takes On New York (1993). Ullman continued to star in films, including Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), Bullets over Broadway (1994), and James L. Brooks' I'll Do Anything (1994). HBO turned Ullman's award-winning special into a series, Tracey Takes On… (1996–99), which earned her a sixth Emmy in 1997. Her turn as Dr. Tracy Clark on Ally McBeal earned a second guest actress Emmy for Ullman in 1999. After starring in Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks (2000), Ullman received two more Emmy nods for her HBO specials Tracey Ullman in The Trailer Tales (2003) and Tracey Ullman: Live & Exposed (2005). Ullman became a naturalized American citizen in 2003. (Adam Wills (2nd ed.)