Ulises Toirac is a popular Cuban actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director of theater and television. He is the creator of characters in 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 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 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 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 then joined the theatrical group Carlos Pous.
After these experiences, Ulises, together 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 Ensemble. This was a turning point in Toirac's life that led him to pursue acting, and especially humor.
After completing his university degree, he founded the group Onondivepa with a group of friends. They staged the play Farewell to the Comrade Benito and participated in summer shows alongside established artistic groups and comedians from Cuba, such as La Seña del Humor and the National Entertainment Company 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 started working on the youth magazine broadcast by Radio Progreso, called Juventud 2000. At this station, he also wrote, directed, and starred in the humor magazine Contalco.
His breakthrough in television came with Doble Filo, a show in which 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 propelled him to fame.
In Sabadazo, a television program hosted by Carlos Otero, Ulises performed 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 humor in Cuba.
This gave him the necessary boost to delve into one-person shows. In these performances, he stood out for his ability to link different themes, attitudes, and talents. The first solo show 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 all over the country to participate: ¿And what are you laughing at?
In 2002, he began his most ambitious project, ¿Jura Decir La Verdad?. 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 had 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 of 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, as well as distinctions 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)
