Ulises Toirac is a popular Cuban actor, comedian, screenwriter, and theater and television director. He is the creator of characters in traditional Cuban humor such as Juan Marchante (Chivichana), Matute and Yudmila, among many others.
Ulises Toirac Abelenda was born on June 29, 1963. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the "José Antonio Echeverría" Technological University of Havana (CUJAE) in 1986. However, his professional career has been in the cultural field.
Since high school, he began to act as an amateur artist. In 1981, he formed a theater group for which he wrote the humorous play Colón en el Onceno Festival. With this group, he also staged the first performance of a theatrical work Un Brindis por el Zonzo, a theatrical adaptation of a story by Onelio Jorge Cardoso.
At CUJAE, Ulises became involved in amateur theater. He first joined an experimental group led by Augusto Cañozares, with which he participated in the play Ópera X. He later 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 Performance Group. This was a turning point in Toirac's life that led him to pursue acting, particularly in humor.
After completing their university studies, they founded the group Onondivepa, along with a group of friends. They staged the play Farewell to Our Comrade Benito and participated in summer shows alongside established artistic groups and Cuban comedians, such as La Seña del Humor and the National Show Group itself.
In 1988, Ulises joined the cast of the Programa de Ramón on Radio Ciudad de La Habana, where he acted, wrote scripts, and became 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 debut in television came with Doble Filo, where he played the character Pupi, a young and talkative barber. In 1993, he joined the cast of Sabadazo, the television show that ultimately catapulted him to fame.
In Sabadazo, a 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 stated in several interviews that it was a contradictory period, as it also marked the beginning of an era of the trivialization of jokes and the simplification of how humor was made in Cuba.
This gave him the necessary boost to delve into one-man shows. In them, he stood out for his ability to connect different themes, attitudes, and talents. The first one-man show was Con Las Tiras del Pellejo (1995). This was followed by El Flaco (1996).
In 1999, she made her return to television with her own show where she invited young comedians from across the country to participate: What Are You Laughing At?
In 2002, he then began his most ambitious project, Do You Swear to Tell the Truth?. It was a television show that paid tribute to The Tremendous Court, an internationally renowned Cuban comedy 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 had 5 seasons and remained on air until 2009. Some scripts were adapted for the theater, achieving tremendous 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 theater 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, as well as distinctions such as the Order for National Culture (2004).
Movies in which he has participated as an actor:
- Alice in Wonderland (1992)
- Tropical Dream (1993)
- Adorable Lies (1993)
- Pata Negra (1999)
- A King in Havana (2004)
- Chivichana The Movie (2005)
