Critics have lauded her ability to shift seamlessly in and out of character and accents, with many dubbing her the "female Peter Sellers".

[2][3][4] Her earliest mainstream appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows A Kick Up the Eighties (with Rik Mayall and Miriam Margolyes) and Three of a Kind (with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield).

[5] After a brief singing career (which garnered three top-ten singles), she appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls on Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

She would go on to star in her own network television comedy series, The Tracey Ullman Show from 1987 until 1990, which also featured the first appearances of the long-running animated media franchise The Simpsons.

She has appeared in several feature films, including in Plenty (1985), which earned Ullman a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2017, Ullman was reportedly Britain's richest comedian and the second-richest British actress,[9] with an estimated wealth of £80 million.

[19] In an effort to cheer her family up, Ullman, along with her sister Patti, created and performed nightly shows on their mother's bedroom windowsill.

[18][25] Ullman began her television career in 1980 playing Lynda Bellingham's daughter in the British series Mackenzie.

"[26] Ullman appeared in Les Blair's avant-garde Four in a Million, an improvised play about club acts, at London's Royal Court Theatre.

[30] Throughout the series, Ullman would also sing, performing comical spoofs of well-known artists of the time such as Toyah, Bananarama, Jennifer Warnes, and Dollar.

Three of a Kind led to her beginning her own brief but successful singing career in 1983, and also winning her first BAFTA (for "Best Light Entertainment Performance") in 1984.

In 1985, Ullman was persuaded by her husband, British independent television producer Allan McKeown, to join him in Los Angeles, where he was already partially based.

[16] Unhappy with the direction the network wanted to take the show, Ullman's agent decided to contact producer James L.

[38] The show also produced The Simpsons as a series of animated shorts, or "bumpers", which would air before and after commercial breaks.

[46] This led to HBO in America becoming interested in having a special made for their network, with the caveat that Ullman take on a more American subject.

[52] Upon her naturalisation in the United States, it was announced in April 2007 that she would be making the switch from HBO to Showtime after working fourteen years with the former.

[61] The show eventually led to the creation of the topical comedy programme Tracey Breaks the News in 2017.

[68] On 15 February 2017, it was announced that she would star in the Starz-BBC co-produced limited series adaptation of Howards End, playing Aunt Juley Mund.

[70][71][72] Her performance garnered her an Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Primetime Emmy nomination.

[75] Ullman recounted, "One day, I was at my hairdresser, and Dave Robinson's wife Rosemary leant over and said, 'Do you want to make a record?'...

Ullman's songs were over-the-top evocations of 1960s and 1970s pop music with a 1980s edge, "somewhere between Minnie Mouse and the Supremes" as Melody Maker put it.

[83] Its accompanying video featured a cameo from the British Labour Party politician Neil Kinnock, at the time the Leader of the Opposition.

[84] Her final Top 30 hit, "Sunglasses" (1984), peaked at #18 in the UK and featured comedian Adrian Edmondson in its music video.

[87] She made her big screen leading role debut in I Love You to Death (1990) acting alongside Kevin Kline, River Phoenix, and Joan Plowright.

She appeared in lead and supporting roles in films such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993),[88] Nancy Savoca's Household Saints (1993),[89] Bullets Over Broadway (1994),[90] Small Time Crooks (2000), Panic (2000) and A Dirty Shame (2004).

[91] She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her work in Small Time Crooks in 2001.

[100] In 1990, she starred opposite actor Morgan Freeman as Kate in Shakespeare in the Park's production of Taming of the Shrew set in the Wild West for Joe Papp.

[101] In 1991, she performed on Broadway in Jay Presson Allen's one-woman show The Big Love, based on the book of the same name.

[105] In 2012, she joined the cast of Eric Idle's What About Dick?, described as a 1940s-style stand-up improv musical comedy radio play, taking on three roles.

[106] Cast members included Idle, Eddie Izzard, Billy Connolly, Russell Brand, Tim Curry, Jane Leeves, Jim Piddock, and Sophie Winkleman.