Tracey
At sixteen, Tracey made her first professional appearance dancing in Gigi in Berlin. Upon returning to England, she joined the popular "Second Generation" dance troupe. She went on to appear in numerous West End musicals, such as Elvis, Grease, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
She caught the attention of the BBC after her breakout, award-winning performance in Four in a Million at the Royal Court Theatre. They offered her her own show—a first for a female performer. Three of a Kind, co-starring comedians Lenny Henry and David Copperfield, premiered in 1981. This BAFTA Award-winning series made Tracey a household name. She followed this with appearances in A Kick Up the Eighties with Rik Mayall, Miriam Margolyes, and Robbie Coltrane, and Girls on Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
In 1983, she tried her hand at a music career. Her album, You Broke My Heart in Seventeen Places, reached #14 on the British charts and was certified Gold. Her song "They Don't Know" reached #2 in the UK and #8 in the United States. In 1984, she released her second album, You Caught Me Out.
Tracey then pivoted back to her comedy and film career. In 1984, she appeared in Paul McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street. Her performance in 1985's Plenty, opposite Meryl Streep, garnered her a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
In 1986, Tracey set her sights on a television career in the United States. In 1987, she teamed with famed television and film producer James L. Brooks. The pair created the sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show for the fledgling Fox network. The series gave birth to the longest-running American scripted primetime television series in history: The Simpsons. The Tracey Ullman Show ran for four seasons, ending its run in 1990. The show won a total of eleven Primetime Emmy Awards; Tracey herself was awarded three, along with a Golden Globe and five American Comedy Awards.
After The Tracey Ullman Show, Tracey starred in films such as 1990's I Love You to Death, Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway (1994). She also made a return to the stage in 1990 with The Taming of the Shrew, starring opposite Morgan Freeman, and the one-woman Broadway show The Big Love.
Tracey returned to British screens in 1993 with Tracey Ullman: A Class Act, joined by Monty Python's Michael Palin. The special poked fun at the British class system. HBO became interested at this point and commissioned a special for American audiences, with the caveat that she take on a more American subject. She chose New York. Tracey Ullman Takes on New York premiered in October 1993 and was a smashing success. It received seven Primetime Emmy nominations (winning two), an American Comedy Award, and a CableACE Award. It was then that HBO proposed a "Takes on" television series. Tracey and her husband, independent British television producer Allan McKeown, set up production on Tracey Takes on... in Los Angeles in 1995.
Tracey Takes on... proved to be just as successful, running for four seasons and winning six Primetime Emmy Awards, three American Comedy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Satellite Award, and two GLAAD Media Awards.
In 2000, Tracey starred in Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks. Taking a break from her character-based comedy, in 2001 Tracey created the fashion-based chat show Tracey Ullman's Visible Panty Lines for the Oxygen network, a spin-off from her e-commerce clothing site, Purple Skirt, which she launched in 1999. The show ran for two seasons. In 2003, Tracey returned to HBO with the comedy special Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales. The special, spun off from Tracey Takes on..., focused on one of Tracey's most popular characters: the septuagenarian Ruby Romaine.
In 2004, Tracey starred in John Waters' A Dirty Shame. In 2005, she starred alongside one of her comedy idols, Carol Burnett, in ABC's television adaptation of Once Upon a Mattress, playing Princess Winnifred. That same year, she returned to HBO with her autobiographical stage show, Tracey Ullman: Live & Exposed.
An inveterate knitter, Tracey published a book on the subject in 2006, Knit 2 Together: Patterns and Stories for Serious Knitting Fun, with fellow knitter and friend Mel Clark. In 2007, Tracey began work on a new sketch comedy series, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, for Showtime. The show premiered in 2008 and ran for three seasons, garnering six Primetime Emmy nominations and winning one for Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic). It also earned two Satellite Awards (Best Comedy Series and Best Performance in a Comedy Series) and a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) nomination.
In 2011, Tracey returned to the British stage in Stephen Poliakoff's My City, for which she received an Evening Standard Theatre Award nomination for Best Actress. In 2014, she joined the stage production of The Band Wagon, directed by Kathleen Marshall. That same year, she appeared in Disney's Into the Woods playing Jack's Mother.
After thirty years, Tracey returned to the BBC in 2016 with the sketch comedy series Tracey Ullman's Show, which was later spun off into the topical series Tracey Breaks the News. The former garnered three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In 2017, Tracey appeared in the BBC/Starz adaptation of Howards End playing Aunt Julie.
Tracey portrayed feminist author and activist Betty Friedan in the FX limited series Mrs. America. Her performance garnered yet another Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.
In 2021, Tracey began appearing as City Councilwoman Irma Kostroski in the hit HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm to great critical acclaim.
American Comedy Awards
1988 – Funniest Female Performer of the Year
1988 – Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication, The Tracey Ullman Show
1989 – Funniest Female Performer in a TV Special (Leading or Supporting) Network, Cable or Syndication, Tracey Ullman: Backstage
1990 – Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication, The Tracey Ullman Show
1991 – Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication, The Tracey Ullman Show
1992 – American Comedy Award Funniest Female Performer in a Television Special, Funny Women of Television
1994 – Funniest Female Performer in a TV Special (Leading or Supporting) Network, Cable or Syndication, Tracey Takes on New York
1996 – American Comedy Award Funniest Female Performer in a Television Special, Women of the Night IV
1998 – American Comedy Award Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series, Tracey Takes on...
1999 – American Comedy Award Funniest Female Guest Appearance in a Television Series, Ally McBeal
1999 – American Comedy Award Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series, Tracey Takes on...
2000 – American Comedy Award Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series Tracey Takes on...
BAFTA Awards
1984 – Best Light Entertainment Performance, Three of a Kind
CableAce Awards
1995 – Best Performance in a Comedy Series, Tracey Ullman: Takes on New York
1996 – Best Actress in a Comedy Series, Tracey Takes on...
1996 – Best Variety Special or Series, Tracey Takes on...
Primetime Emmy Awards
1989 – Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program, The Tracey Ullman Show
1990 – Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program, The Tracey Ullman Show
1990 – Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, The Best of the Tracey Ullman Show
1993 – Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, Love & War
1994 – Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Programme, Tracey Ullman: Takes on New York
1997 – Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series, Tracey Takes on...
1999 – Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, Ally McBeal
Golden Globe Awards
1988 – Best Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
Critics' Circle Theatre Awards
1981 – Most Promising New Actress, Four in a Million
Satellite Awards
1998 – Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical, Tracey Takes on...
2008 – Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union
2014 – Best Ensemble, Motion Picture, Into the Woods
2021 – Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film, Mrs. America
Screen Actors Guild Awards
1999 – Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, Tracey Takes on...
Theatre World Awards
1991 – Taming of the Shrew
1991 – The Big Love
1995 – Lucy Award from Women in Film
2006 – She Made It Award from Museum of Television and Radio
2009 – Lifetime Achievement BAFTA Award
- Mackenzie (1980) as Lisa MacKenzie (TV series)
- Screenplay (1981) as Karen (Episode: "Happy Since I Met You")
- A Kick Up the Eighties (1981–83) as Various (TV series)
- Four in a Million (1982) as Beverly (TV film)
- A Cut Above (1982) as Samantha
- Girls on Top (1985) as Candice Valentine (TV series)
- Saturday Night Live (1987) as Herself (Episode: Garry Shandling/Los Lobos; "Hollywood Mom" sketch)
- The Tracey Ullman Show (1987–1990) as Various
- Sesame Street as Herself and Trasha (Episode 2584; Season 20; 6 April 1989)
- I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood (1989) as Herself
- I Love You to Death (1990) as Rosalie Boca
- Happily After After (1990) as Thunderella/Moonbeam
- The Full Wax (1991) as Herself (Episode: #1.4)
- The Simpsons (1991) as Emily Winthrop/Mrs. Winfield (Episode: "Bart's Dog Gets An F")
- Funny Women of Television (1991) as Herself
- Sibs (1992) as (Episode: "If I Only Had a Dad")
- Love & War (1993) as Dava Levine (Episode: Episode: "The Prima Dava")
- Tracey Ullman: A Class Act (1993) as Various (TV special)
- Tracey Ullman Takes on New York (1993) as Various (TV special)
- The Little Lulu Show (1995) as Lulu (Season 1)
- Women of the Night IV (1995) as Herself
- Tracey Takes on... (1996–99) as Various (TV series)
- Ally McBeal (1998–99) as Dr. Tracey Clark (Episodes: "Troubled Water", "Sideshow", "The Real World", "The Playing Field", "Theme of Life")
- Tracey Ullman's Visible Panty Lines (2001–02) as Herself (TV series)
- Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales (2003) as Ruby Romaine/Svetlana/Pepper Kane (TV special)
- Will & Grace (2004) as Ann (Episode: "Looking for Mr. Good Enough")
- Tracey Ullman: Live & Exposed (2005) as Herself (TV special)
- Once Upon A Mattress (2005) as Princess Winnifred (TV film)
- Dawn French's Girls Who Do Comedy (2006) as Herself (3 episodes)
- If It Ain't Still (2007) as Herself
- Mumbai Calling (2008) as Telephone Voice (7 episodes)
- Tracey Ullman's State of the Union (2008–2010) as Various (TV series)
- Kennedy Center Honors (2011) as Herself (Episode: Tribute to Meryl Streep)
- How I Met Your Mother (2014) as Genevieve Scherbatsky (Episodes: "Vesuvius", "Daisy", "The End of the Aisle")
- Sofia the First (2014) as Marla (Episode: "Mom's the Word")
- Shakespeare Uncovered (2015) as Herself (Episode: "The Taming of the Shrew With Morgan Freeman")
- Tracey Ullman's Show (2016–17) as Various (TV series)
- Have I Got News For You (2016) as Herself (Guest presenter; Series 51, Episode 2)
- Girls (2017) as Ode Montgomery (Episode: "Painful Evacuation")
- Tracey Breaks the News (2017) as Various (TV special)
- Howard's End (2017) as Aunt Juley (TV miniseries)
- The President Show (2017) as Herself (Episode: "I Came Up with Christmas: A President Show Christmas")
- Tracey Breaks the News (2017–18) as Various (TV series)
- Have I Got News For You (2018) as Herself (Guest host; Series 55, Episode 9)
- Zog (2018) as Madame Dragon
- Mrs. America (2020) as Betty Friedan (TV miniseries)
- Death to 2020 (2020) as The Queen
- Curb Your Enthusiasm (2021–24) as Irma Kostroski
- Death to 2021 (2021) as Madison Madison
- Elsbeth (2025–26) as Marilyn (Episode: "I See... Murder"); Betty Heymouth (Episode: "Catch to Kill")
- Ted Lasso (2026) as TBA
Film
Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984) as Sandra
The Young Visitors (1984) as Ethel Monticue
Plenty (1985) as Alice Park
Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986) as Fiona
I Love You to Death (1990) as Rosalie Boca
Happily Ever After (1990) as Thunderella and Moonbeam
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) as Latrine
Household Saints (1993) as Catherine Falconetti
I'll Do Anything (1994) as Beth Hobbs
Bullets over Broadway (1994) as Eden Brent
Prêt-à-Porter (1994) as Nina Scant
C-Scam (2000)
Panic (2000) as Martha
Small Time Crooks (2000) as Frenchy
A Dirty Shame (2004) as Sylvia Stickles
Corpse Bride (2005) as Nell Van Dort and Hildegarde
Conk's New Groove (2005) as Ms. Birdwell
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007) as Mother Nature
The Tale of Despereaux (2008) as Mig
Into the Woods (2014) as Jack's Mother
Onward (2020) as Grecklin
- The Prom (2020) as Vera
- The Actor (2025) as Mrs. Malloy/Helen/Deerville Woman
- Steve (2025) as Amanda
- Ella McCay (2025) as Olympia
Writing, Directing, and Producing Credits
Girls on Top (1985) – additional material
The Tracey Ullman Show (1987–1990) – writer
Tracey Ullman: A Class Act (1993) – additional material
Tracey Takes on... (1996–99) – creator, writer, executive producer, second unit director (season 4)
Tracey Ullman's Visible Panty Lines (2001–02) – executive producer
Tracey Ullman in The Trailer Tales (2003) – director, writer, executive producer
Tracey Ullman: Live & Exposed (2005) – writer
Flushed Away (2006) – creative consultant
Tracey Ullman's State of the Union (2008-2010) – creator, writer, director (season 3), executive producer
Tracey Ullman's Show (2016–17) – devised by, executive producer
Tracey Breaks the News (2017) – devised by, executive producer
- Tracey Breaks the News (2017–18) – devised by, executive producer
- Highway One (2021) – associate producer
Music
You Broke My Heart in Seventeen Places (1983)
You Caught Me Out (1984)
Comedy
Three of a Kind (1983)
Audiobooks
Puss in Boots (1993)
- Wise Children (2018)
- A Carnival of Snackeries (2021)
Gigi (1976)
Second Generation (1977)
Aladdin (1977/78)
Elvis The Musical (1978)
Oh! Boy (1978)
Grease (1979) as Frenchy
The Rocky Horror Show (1979) as Janet
Talent (1980)
It's a Madhouse (1980) as Vera
Zack (1980) as Sally
Gloo Joo (1980) as Irene
Dracula (1980) as Lucy
Four in a Million (1981) as Beverly
Dick Whittington (1982–82) as Dick
Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1982) as Bob's wife
She Stoops to Conquer (1982) as Kate Hardcastle
Bows and Arrows (1982) as Henrietta
The Grass Widow (1983) as Carmen
The Taming of the Shrew (1990) as Kate
The Big Love (1991) as Beverly Aadland
Tracey Ullman: Live & Exposed (2005) as Herself
My City (2011) as Elizabeth Lambert
What About Dick? (2012) as Aunt Maggie/Enid Bastard/The Countess von Kuns
The Band Wagon (2014) as Lily Martin
Tracey Takes on (1998)
Knit 2 Together: Patterns and Stories for Serious Knitting Fun (2006)
On Dogs: An Anthology (2019)
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