Ulises Toirac is a popular Cuban actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director of theater and television. He is the creator of characters from 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 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 pre-university, 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 production 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 part of an experimental group directed by Augusto Cañozares, with which he participated in the play Ópera X. Later, he joined the theatrical group Carlos Pous.
After these experiences, Ulises, along with several friends, founded the First National University Humor Festival. He seized this opportunity to invite Alejandro García Villalón (Virulo) to close the event with the National Show Group. This marked a turning point in Toirac's life, leading him to pursue acting, particularly in the realm of comedy.
After finishing his university degree, he founded the group Onondivepa with a group of friends. They staged the play Farewell to Mourning for Comrade Benito and participated in summer shows alongside renowned artistic groups and Cuban comedians, such as La Seña del Humor and the Conjunto Nacional de Espectáculos itself.
In 1988, Ulises joined the cast of the Ramón Program on Radio Ciudad de La Habana, where he performed, wrote scripts, and became familiar with radio production. A year later, he began working on the youth magazine broadcast by Radio Progreso, called Youth 2000. At this station, he also wrote, directed, and starred in the humorous magazine Contalco.
His breakthrough in television was on Doble Filo, a show where he played the character Pupi, a young and talkative barber. In 1993, he joined the cast of Sabadazo, the television show that ultimately propelled him to fame.
In Sabadazo, a television program hosted by Carlos Otero, Ulises portrayed more than fifteen characters, including notable ones like Matute and Yudmila.
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 is crafted in Cuba.
This gave him the necessary boost to delve into solo performances. In these, he stood out for his ability to weave together different themes, attitudes, and talents. The first solo performance was Con Las Tiras del Pellejo (1995). This was followed by El Flaco (1996).
In 1999, he made his return to television with his own show in which he invited young comedians from across the country to participate: ¿Y tú de qué te ríes?
In 2002, he began his most ambitious project, Will You Swear to Tell the Truth?. It was a television show that paid tribute to La Tremenda Corte, 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 ran for 5 seasons and remained on the air until 2009. Some scripts were adapted for the theater, achieving tremendous success.
Ulises Toirac has performed on international stages. In 2011, he went on a tour in the United States. In Florida, he presented his one-man 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, as well as distinctions such as the Order for National Culture (2004).
Movies he has participated in 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)
