Biography
Born in Buckinghamshire, England in 1959, multi-talented Tracey Ullman found success as both a singer and an actress. Her unique eye on the world was formed early. Her father died in front of her when she was six years old, making it a struggle for her family to make ends meet. Ever the performer, Ullman won a scholarship to the Italia Conti Academy where she trained as an actress. At sixteen, a random audition led to a short-lived contract dancing with a German ballet company. Her first onscreen credit came in 1980, when she played a recurring role on "Mackenzie" (BBC, 1980), but her career solidified the next year when she starred in the sketch comedy show "Three of a Kind" (BBC1, 1981-1983). As that show wrapped up, Ullman tried her hand at a music career releasing the album You Broke My Heart in 17 Places in 1983, and You Caught Me Out the next year. She ended up with a number of hit songs including "They Don't Know" which reached number 2 in the UK and number 8 in the United States, but quickly decided that the music industry wasn't for her. She made a triumphant return to television with the sitcom "Girls On Top" (ITV, 1985-86) in 1985, which brought her to the attention of executives at the fledgling Fox network. In 1987, her variety show "The Tracey Ullman Show" (Fox, 1987-1990) became one of the networks first scripted series. The show featured Ullman playing an array of roles from irascible office worker Kay, to Dr. Alexander Gibson. It was a critical smash, earning eleven Emmy awards over it's four seasons including two wins for Outstanding Variety, Music of Comedy program and the first of four individual Emmys for Ullman. It was also the launching pad for "The Simpsons" (Fox, 1989-), which began as short cartoons within episodes of the show. Exhausted from performing her show in front of a live audience, Ullman decided to end it in 1990, the same year she made her feature film debut in "I Love You To Death" (1990). Her husband convinced her to create the sketch special "Tracey Ullman: A Class Act" (1993), this time shot on location with no studio audience, which ultimately turned into the HBO series "Tracey Takes On " (HBO, 1996-99). In 2000, Ullman was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in Woody Allen's film "Small Time Crooks" (2000). She returned again to playing multiple characters on the sketch comedy series "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union" (Showtime, 2008-2010). In 2016 Ullman returned to the BBC, bringing yet another sketch show, "Tracey Ullman's Show" (BBC One, 2016-), as well as playing in the miniseries adaptation "Howard's End" (BBC One, 2017), and "Tracey Breaks the News" (BBC One, 2017-)
