“RANGO” - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Santa for "a big stage in the den with curtains and lights" and proceeded to put on nightly shows for
her indulgent parents. She always loved being theatrical and her favorite holiday was Halloween,
especially the make-up and costumes. Following her television debut on "Romper Room," Ubach
was cast as the host’s daughter in an independent film for KTLA, "Los Alvarez." At seven, Ubach
began eight years of studying ballet, jazz and tap, adopting her parents' strong work ethic.
At ten, Ubach joined the Lee Strasberg Institute’s Children’s Program along with celebrity
offspring like Angelina Jolie (then Angie Voight). The group performed a new play every twelve
weeks but Ubach wasn’t stimulated enough. The budding entrepreneur admits, "I’d make cookies
and sell them to my neighbors door-to-door." Some mornings she would just show up at a neighbor’s
door and ask them to make her breakfast and sometimes she would go trick or treating in July.
Something about her made the whole neighborhood as indulgent as her parents.
In high school, Ubach attended Lycee Francais and began working on sets, relishing in the
attention of a private tutor. At fourteen, she left Strasberg to follow a teacher, Margrit Polak, who was
forming an adult method acting class, including Jim Caviezel. Ubach got used to being the only child
in a world full of adults. In her spare time, she’d rent ten movies a weekend and spend each Sunday
going to the movies with her parents and discussing the film’s themes afterwards. "I was immersed in
a really sophisticated environment for a kid," says Ubach, who had no problem going to New York to
star in WPA’s production of "Club Soda," following a nationwide search for a Jewish girl from
Brooklyn. Polak went to see her student’s acclaimed performance (the New York Times called Ubach
"an actress to keep your eye on") and agreed to manage her, a relationship that exists to this day.
Back in L.A., Ubach spent two years starring as Josie on "Beakman’s World," an award-winning,
syndicated children’s science show. Then she returned to New York to star in "Kindertransport" at
the Manhattan Theatre Club and won more raves. In films, she co-starred in "Renaissance Man,"
"Airborne," the Whoopi Goldberg-starrer, "Sister Act 2" and in "The Brady Bunch Movie" as Marcia's
lesbian best friend, Noreen.
After years of doing television pilots that weren’t picked up, Ubach began her indie film career
beginning with the title role in "Denise Calls Up," as a woman who goes to a sperm bank and tracks
down her potential donor, followed by "Freeway," as a badass gay Latina girl in jail and in "Johns," as
David Arquette’s attitude-filled girlfriend and she was the hit of Sundance with her trio of
performances. Inspired, she wrote "Life After Donna Dell" so she’d have "a different kind of part for
myself in a musical fantasy of a 1950’s icon." She also nabbed a starring role in "Clockwatchers,"
about disgruntled temps with Toni Collette and Parker Posey. As Elle Woods’ best friend in "Legally
Blonde," Ubach chuckles, "We were under so much pressure to look good, the make-up trailer was
intense." The film's huge success surprised everyone, including Ubach, who discloses, "I felt the
need to play other characters with a little more depth." The result was "Patriotic Bitch," the onewoman
show she wrote and starred in about "women of all ethnic groups trying to get jobs after
September 11th." The show was a hit at the Stages Theatre and the Hudson Theatre before moving
to Off-Broadway’s Clurman Theatre in 2008, receiving notable reviews.
She reprised her sorority princess role in “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde,” and
used her earnings from the film to finance a self-produced, written and directed short film, "A Mi Amor
Mi Dulce." She also starred in the short and filmed in downtown L.A., not far from the site of the
family business, which closed before her father’s sudden passing. "I think my dad was looking down
on me," Ubach offers, "everyone let me shoot in their businesses for free and it was one of the
greatest experiences of my life." The short premiered at Los Angeles’ Outfest followed by the Turin
Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Chicago’s Reeling Festival.
In 2004, Ubach spent months in New Orleans’ French Quarter with Ryan Reynolds and Anna
Faris filming “Waiting" and enjoyed the party-like atmosphere with the cast. Ubach then heard of a
role for a heavy-set African American or Hispanic maid-turned-caterer, Isabel, in “Meet the Fockers"
and auditioned, then waited six weeks while every legitimately older character actress also
auditioned. Finally she was asked to the table reading for the film and she prepared by smoking a
Camel for the requisite raspy voice and wore burgundy nails, which she