Tracey Ullman

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A chance encounter with the wife of the head of the punk music label Stiff Records led to Ullman getting a record contract in 1983. Label owner Dave Robinson was taken with some of the musical parodies she had been doing in her television work and signed her. Ullman recounted, "One day, I was at my hairdresser, and Dave Robinson's wife Rosemary leant over and said, 'Do you want to make a record?'... I went, 'Yeah I want to make a record.' I would have tried anything."

Her 1983 debut album You Broke My Heart in 17 Places featured her first hit single "Breakaway", as well as the international hit cover version of label-mate Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know", which reached #2 in the UK, #35 in Germany and #8 in the United States. In less than two years, Ullman had six songs in the UK Top 100.

A cover of Doris Day's "Move Over Darling" reached #8 in the UK, and a cover of Madness' "My Girl", which she changed to "My Guy". Its accompanying video featured a cameo from the British Labour Party politician Neil Kinnock, at the time the Leader of the Opposition.

Ullman's songs were over-the-top evocations of 1960s and 1970s pop music with a 1980s edge, "somewhere between Minnie Mouse and the Supremes" as Melody Maker put it, or "retro before retro was cool", as a reviewer wrote in 2002. Her career received another boost when the video for "They Don't Know" featured a cameo appearance from Paul McCartney; at the time Ullman was filming a minor role in McCartney's film Give My Regards to Broad Street. She released her second (and final) album You Caught Me Out in 1984. Her final hit, "Sunglasses" (1984), featured comedian Adrian Edmondson in its music video. During this time she also appeared as a guest VJ on MTV in the United States.

Television career

Ullman began her television career in 1980 playing Lynda Bellingham's daughter in the British series Mackenzie. "I really thought I was great when I did a quite serious soap opera for the BBC. I played a nice girl from St. John's Wood. 'Mummy, I think I'm pregnant. I don't know who's done it.' Then I would fall down a hill or something. 'EEEEE! Oh, no, lost another baby.' It seemed all I ever did was have miscarriages—or make yogurt."

Ullman appeared in Les Blair's avant-garde Four in a Million, an improvised play about club acts, at London's Royal Court Theatre. She won the London Critics Circle Theatre Award as Most Promising New Actress for her performance.

In 1981, she was cast in the BBC Scotland sketch comedy programme A Kick Up the Eighties. This led to her being offered her own show. "My first reaction was you must be joking, as women are treated so shoddily in comedy. Big busty barmaids and all those sort of clichés just bore me rigid." Eventually a deal was struck with the proviso being that she would get to choose the show's writers, have script approval, and choose the costumes. Three of a Kind, co-starring comedians Lenny Henry and David Copperfield debuted in 1981. This led to her winning her first BAFTA in 1984. She would soon go on to become a household name with the British media referring to her as "Our Trace".

In 1985, she signed on to star in the ITV sitcom Girls on Top. She was cast as the promiscuous golddigger Candice Valentine. The show, co-starring Dawn French, Ruby Wax, and Jennifer Saunders continued after Ullman bowed out after the first series. Saunders also wrote the scripts.

In 1985, Ullman was persuaded by her husband to join him in Los Angeles where he was already partially based. She set her sights on a film and stage career believing that there was little in the way of television for her. Her British agent put together a videotape compilation of her work and began circulating it around Hollywood. The tape landed in the hands of Craig Kellem, vice president for comedy at Universal Television. A deal was immediately struck with CBS. I Love New York, a show about a "slightly wacky" British woman working in New York, was written by Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts. Unhappy with the direction the network wanted to take the show, Ullman's agent decided to contact producer James L. Brooks. Brooks felt that a sketch show would best suit her. "Why would you do something with Tracey playing a single character on TV when her talent requires variety? You can't categorize Tracey, so it's silly to come up with a show that attempted to." The Tracey Ullman Show debuted on 5 April 1987, along with Married... with Children. The show also produced The Simpsons as a series of animated shorts, or "bumpers", which would air before and after commercial breaks. The Simpsons shorts would eventually be spun-off into their own half-hour series in 1989. The Tracey Ullman Show was awarded ten Primetime Emmy Awards, with Ullman winning three, one in the category of Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program in 1990. The show was the first Fox network primetime show to win an Emmy award. The show concluded after a four season run in 1990.

In 1991, Ullman's husband placed a successful bid on a television franchise in the South of England. The television programming lineup agreed upon included a Tracey Ullman special. Unlike the Fox show, this programme would be shot entirely on location. Tracey Ullman: A Class Act, a send up of the British class system, premiered on 9 January 1993 on ITV. This led to HBO in America becoming interested in having a special made for their network with the caveat that Ullman take on a more American subject. She chose New York City. Tracey Ullman Takes on New York debuted on 9 October 1993. The programme went on to win two Emmy Awards, a CableAce Award, an American Comedy Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award. The success led to the creation of the HBO sketch comedy series Tracey Takes On... in 1996.

Ullman returned to HBO in 2003 with the television special Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales, which she also directed. She returned to HBO again in 2005 with her one-woman stage show Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed.

In 2001, Ullman took a break from her multi-character-based work and created a fashion-based talk show for Oxygen Network, Tracey Ullman's Visible Panty Lines. The series was spun-off from her e-commerce clothing store Purple Skirt. Interviewees included Arianna Huffington and Charlize Theron. The show ran for two seasons concluding in 2002.

Upon her naturalisation in the United States, it was announced in April 2007 that she would be making the switch from HBO to Showtime after working fourteen years with the former. Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, a new sketch comedy series, debuted on 30 March 2008. It ran for three seasons concluding in 2010.

After a thirty year absence, Ullman returned to the BBC with the sketch comedy programme Tracey Ullman's Show in 2016. It aired in the United States on HBO. In 2017, the show earned its first Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the category of Outstanding Variety Sketch Series. In 2018, it garnered two additional Primetime Emmy Award nominations in the categories of Outstanding Variety Sketch Series and Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programming. The show eventually led to the creation of the topical comedy programme Tracey Breaks the News in 2017.

In 1995, she became the first modern-day cartoon voice of Little Lulu. In 1999, she had a recurring role as an unconventional psychotherapist on Ally McBeal. Her performance garnered her a Primetime Emmy Award, her seventh, and an American Comedy Award which was her eleventh. In 2005, she co-starred with Carol Burnett in the television adaptation of Once Upon a Mattress. She played Princess Winnifred, a role originally made famous by Burnett on Broadway. This time Burnett took on the role of the overbearing Queen Aggravain.

In March 2014, Ullman was introduced as Genevieve Scherbatsky, the mother of character Robin Scherbatsky in How I Met Your Mother. On 15 February 2017, it was announced that she would star in the Starz-BBC co-produced limited series adaptation of Howards End playing Aunt Juley Mund.

On 14 May 2019, it was announced that Ullman would be portraying Betty Friedan in the FX limited series Mrs. America. The nine-episode series premiered 15 April 2020 on Hulu to favourable reviews. Her performance garnered her an Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Primetime Emmy nomination.

In 2021, Ullman plays councilwoman Irma Kostroski in the eleventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

On 5 October 2022, it was announced that Ullman had been cast in the upcoming television series, Never Let Me Go.

Film career

Along with her television work, Ullman has featured in many films throughout her career. Her first theatrical film was a small role in Paul McCartney's film Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984). This was followed by a supporting role in the drama Plenty (1985) starring Meryl Streep. She made her big screen leading role debut in I Love You to Death (1990) acting alongside Kevin Kline, River Phoenix, and Joan Plowright. She appeared in lead and supporting roles in films such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Nancy Savoca's Household Saints, Bullets Over Broadway, Small Time Crooks, and A Dirty Shame. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her work in Small Time Crooks in 2001. She played Jack's mother in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Into the Woods (2014) and appeared in the musical film The Prom (2020).

Her voice work in film includes Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and the computer-animated films The Tale of Despereaux and Onward.

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