Tracey Ullman Biography

Date of Birth: December 30, 1959

Bron in Slough, Berkshire England, Tracey Ullman's father died when she was six. Winning an arts scholarship at age 12, she worked as a professional dancer with a German ballet company before channelling her energies into musical comedy. She made her debut there in Gigi. Returning to London, Ullman started performing in musical productions. She was a backup singer with Shakin' Stevens in Elvis, the Musical, played Frenchy in Grease and even played Janet in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

For her work in the West End production Four In A Million, Ullman was honored with the London Theatre Critics' award as Most Promising New Actress of 1981.

Four In A Million developed into a comedic piece which led to a successful stint in the sketch comedy show A Kick Up the Eighties. Ullman followed this with the satirical BBC comedy series, Three of a Kind, which earned her a British Academy Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1983.

Not content to be just a dancer or actress, Ullman became a true triple threat when she hit the British pop music scene in 1984. While still in her early twenties, she climbed the pop-music charts with her singles You Broke My Heart in Seventeen Places and They Don't Know.

In 1987, she launched her American TV career with the Fox Network's weekly The Tracey Ullman Show, a superb showcase for her many offbeat characterizations, including mixed-up teen Francesca, selfish yuppie Sara Downey, repressed spinster Kay, and Goodallesque anthropologist Ceci Beckwith. The show not only won the Fox Network its first Emmy nomination, but also spawned the popular cartoon series The Simpsons, which first took shape as a series of between-the-acts animated vignettes.

After an inauspicious film debut in 1983's Give My Regards to Broad Street, Ullman ascended to film stardom in such productions as Plenty (1985), Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), I Love You to Death (1990), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and I'll Do Anything (1994). She started the new millennium with the Woody Allen film, Small Time Crooks (2000), in which she played Allen's wife. More recently, she starred in Into the Woods (2014).

In 1983 she married producer Allan McKeown. A lasting marriage, Ullman has kept the knot tied and the couple produced two children.

Filmography:

Into the Woods (2014)
The Tale of Despereaux (2008)
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)
A Dirty Shame (2004)
Small Time Crooks (2000)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
I'll Do Anything (1994)
Prêt-à-Porter (1994)
Household Saints (1993)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Happily Ever After (1990) (voice)
I Love You to Death (1990)
Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)
Plenty (1985)
Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984)