Ulises Toirac is a popular Cuban actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director of theater and television. He is the creator of characters from criollo humor such as Juan Marchante (Chivichana), Matute and Yudmila, among many others.
Ulises Toirac Abelenda was born on June 29, 1963. He graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technological University of Havana "José Antonio Echeverría" (CUJAE) in 1986. However, his professional career has been in the cultural field.
Since high school, he began to perform as an amateur artist. In 1981, he formed a theater group for which he wrote the humorous play Colón in the Eleventh Festival. With this group, he also produced the first staging of a theatrical work A Toast to the Fool, a theatrical adaptation of a story by Onelio Jorge Cardoso.
At CUJAE, Ulises joined the amateur theater scene. First, he became a part of an experimental group directed by Augusto Cañozares, with which he participated in the play Ópera X. He then joined the Carlos Pous theater group.
After these experiences, Ulises, along with several friends, founded the First National University Humor Festival. He took this opportunity to invite Alejandro García Villalón (Virulo) to close the event with the National Show Company. This was a turning point in Toirac's life that led him to pursue acting and especially comedy.
After finishing his university studies, he founded the group Onondivepa along with a group of friends. They stage the play Farewell of Mourning for Comrade Benito and participate in summer shows alongside established artistic groups and Cuban comedians, such as La Seña del Humor and the National Show Ensemble itself.
In 1988, Ulises joined the cast of the Programa de Ramón at Radio Ciudad de La Habana, where he acted and wrote scripts, becoming familiar with radio production. A year later, he began working on the youth magazine broadcast by Radio Progreso, called Juventud 2000. At this station, he also wrote, directed, and starred in the humorous magazine Contalco.
His breakout in the television space was in Doble Filo, a show in which he played the character Pupi, a young and chatty barber. In 1993, he became part of the cast of Sabadazo, the television show that definitively launched him to fame.
In Sabadazo, the television program hosted by Carlos Otero, Ulises portrayed over fifteen characters, among which Matute and Yudmila stood out.
Despite being a time of success, Ulises has declared in several interviews that it was a contradictory phase, as it also marked the beginning of an era of the trivialization of jokes and the simplification of humor in Cuba.
This gave him the necessary push to venture into solo performances. In them, he stood out for his ability to connect different themes, attitudes, and talents. The first solo show was Con Las Tiras del Pellejo (1995). It was followed by El Flaco (1996).
In 1999, he made his return to television with his own show, inviting young comedians from across the country to participate: ¿Y tú de qué te ríes?
In 2002, he began his most ambitious project, ¿Jura Decir La Verdad?. This was a television show that paid tribute to La Tremenda Corte, an internationally renowned Cuban humor program written by Castor Vispo and starring Leopoldo Fernández and Aníbal de Mar.
In Do you swear to tell the truth? Toirac portrayed Chivichana, a descendant of Trespatines. The show ran for 5 seasons and stayed on air until 2009. Some scripts were adapted for the theater, achieving great success.
Ulises Toirac has performed on international stages. In 2011, he toured the United States. In Florida, he presented his solo show Cuentos, Canciones y otras IDEAteces at the Miami Dade County Auditorium.
Ulises Toirac is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. Throughout his artistic career, he has received significant awards that affirm his popularity in Cuba, along with honors such as the Order for National Culture (2004).
Movies in which he has participated as an actor:
- Alicia in Wonderland (1992)
- Tropical Dream (1993)
- Adorable Lies (1993)
- Pata Negra (1999)
- A King in Havana (2004)
- Chivichana The Movie (2005)
