Tracy-Ann Oberman in 1969 and 2023. Portrait: Pål Hansen. Styling: Andie Redman. Hair and makeup: Alice Theobald at Arlington Artists using Sisley and GHD. Archive image: Courtesy of Tracy-Ann Obermanis an actor and writer. Her early career was spent with the Royal Shakespeare Company before starring in comedy and drama series such as Big Train, Doctor Who, EastEnders, Toast of London, Friday Night Dinner and It’s a Sin.
There were two parts to my childhood. I started out as this precious, gregarious girl, so confident at school and beloved by all. After that, I became a sad child: when I was four, I lost my grandparents – my dad’s parents – both of whom I was very close to, as well as my great-aunt. It all happened within a year. I remember feeling this feeling, this hole. When my dad told me my grandma had died, I experienced a whoosh like a wind tunnel. I couldn’t quite compute it. My brain changed.
I worked with a bully of a director for one of my first jobs, and he picked on this young boy who was plucked straight from drama school and made into a whipping boy. I was openly horrified, but also incredibly shocked that the older actors were happy to sit back and watch it happen. No job is worth selling your soul for.
I always wanted to be an actor when I was young, but when I told my parents their reaction was: “Don’t be a wanker. That is ridiculous! No, no, no.” Like all immigrant families [Oberman’s great-grandmother was a Belarusian refugee], they wanted their child to get an education and move up in the world. Their hope was that I might do law, or go into advertising.
In spite of all the childhood grief, literature, creativity and performing were the things that got me out of the dark place. Comedy has always been so important to me, too. I come from a family surrounded by Holocaust survivors. They told jokes in Auschwitz. Jews have got funny bones. We see the humour in the tragedy and the tragedy in the humour.