Ulises Toirac is a popular Cuban actor, comedian, screenwriter, and theater and television director. He is the creator of characters from the local 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 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 acting 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 produced the first staging of a theatrical work Un Brindis por el Zonzo, a stage adaptation of a story by Onelio Jorge Cardoso.
At CUJAE, Ulises joined the amateur theater scene. He first became a member of an experimental group directed by Augusto Cañozares, participating 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 Group. This was a turning point in Toirac's life that led him to choose acting, particularly in the field of humor.
After finishing his university degree, he founded the group Onondivepa with a group of friends. They mounted the play Farewell to the Comrade Benito and participated 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 Ramón Program at Radio Ciudad de La Habana, where he acted and wrote scripts, becoming familiar with radio production. A year later, he started working on the youth magazine broadcast by Radio Progreso, named Youth 2000. At this station, he also wrote, directed, and starred in the humorous magazine Contalco.
His breakthrough in television came with Doble Filo, a show where he played the character Pupi, a young and talkative barber. In 1993, he became part of the cast of Sabadazo, the television show that ultimately made him famous.
In Sabadazo, a television program hosted by Carlos Otero, Ulises portrayed more than 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 the way humor was created in Cuba.
This provided him with the necessary boost to delve into solo performances. He stood out for his ability to connect different themes, attitudes, and talents. The first solo performance 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, where he invited young comedians from all over the country to participate: ¿Y tú de qué te ríes?
In 2002, he then began his most ambitious project, Will 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 played Chivichana, a descendant of Trespatines. The show aired for 5 seasons and continued 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 one-man 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).
Films 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)
