Sofía Vergara

Sofía Margarita Vergara, born July 10, 1972, is a Colombian-American actress, comedian, producer, television host, model and businesswoman.

Vergara was widely known for co-hosting two television shows for Spanish-language television network Univisión in the late 1990s. Her first notable acting job in English was in the film Chasing Papi (2003). Subsequently, she appeared in other films, including Four Brothers (2005) and two Tyler Perry films: Meet the Browns (2008) and Madea Goes to Jail (2009), receiving an ALMA Award nomination for the latter. Vergara's success on television has earned her roles in films The Smurfs (2011), New Year's Eve (2011), Happy Feet Two (2011), The Three Stooges (2012), Escape from Planet Earth (2013), Machete Kills (2013), Chef (2014), and Hot Pursuit (2015). In 2012 and 2013, she was the top-earning actress on US television.

Vergara stars on the ABC series Modern Family as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, for which she has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2014, she was ranked as the 32nd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Vergara was born to a Roman Catholic family in Barranquilla. Her mother, Margarita Vergara Dávila de Vergara, was a homemaker, and her father, Julio Enrique Vergara Robayo, was a cattle rancher for the meat industry. She was nicknamed "Toti" by her five siblings and many cousins. Vergara initially studied dentistry at a university in Colombia, but left two semesters away from her degree to pursue opportunities in modeling and show business. She subsequently moved to Miami, Florida, leaving behind unrest in Colombia, where her older brother Rafael was murdered in 1998 during an attempt to kidnap him Her cousin and adopted sister, Sandra, is also a television actress in the United States.

Vergara was discovered by a photographer while walking on a Colombian beach and was quickly presented with offers of modeling and television work. Vergara was "apprehensive about doing her first television commercial—until her Catholic schoolteachers gave her their personal permission to take the assignment." Vergara made her first appearance, at the age of 17, in a Pepsi commercial which was widely broadcast in Latin America.

She then began studies at the Creative Workshops School of Acting, where artists like Gloria Estefan also got her training.

In 2011, Vergara was supposed to star in The Paperboy, an independent drama directed by Lee Daniels. When shooting was delayed for a week and conflicted with her Season 3 shooting schedule on Modern Family, she was forced to drop out.

In July 2011, she finished filming the Farrelly brothers' The Three Stooges, which The Daily Beast described as her first major leading role in a film. Vergara has stated, "I play a mean woman that tries to manipulate the Three Stooges into killing her husband so that she gets all the money."

In April 2012, she appeared in her son Manolo's YouTube web series Vida con Toty. Vergara was the highest-earning woman in U.S. television, earning $19 million for the previous 12 months on a list released by Forbes.com on July 18, 2012. Vergara was named one of People magazine's "50 most beautiful people" and has been recognized by the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard as one of the most influential Latin women in Hollywood.

Vergara received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 7, 2015.

In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the 2016 Orlando gay nightclub shooting; in the video, Vergara and others told the stories of the people killed there.

She currently stars on the ABC sitcom Modern Family as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.

In 2011, Vergara was named the face of CoverGirl, with the first advertisements appearing in January 2012. In April 2011, Vergara appeared in a Diet Pepsi commercial with David Beckham and another in January 2012.

In 2011, it was announced that Vergara is designing a clothing line for Kmart targeting soccer moms and appeared in a number of commercials for Comcast's Xfinity brand and State Farm.

In 2013, she signed endorsement contracts with Diet Pepsi, Rooms To Go, and medicine Synthroid.

Vergara was married at the age of 18 to her high-school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez. They have a son named Manolo born September 1992. They divorced in 1993.

Vergara was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2000. She had her thyroid removed, underwent radioiodine therapy, and made a full recovery. She takes medication to prevent hypothyroidism.

On May 9, 2011, Vergara's younger brother Julio was deported from the United States to Colombia after being arrested in April that year; Julio also had a longtime drug addiction and previous brushes with the law. Vergara told Parade magazine, "To see somebody dying over 10 years, little by little, that's the worst punishment. Now he's like another person."

On July 10, 2012, it was reported that Vergara and her boyfriend Nicholas M. Loeb were engaged. On May 23, 2014, Vergara announced that the engagement had been called off. On May 1, 2015, it was reported that Vergara and Loeb were in dispute regarding the future of two embryos they had frozen while they were together.

In July 2014, it was reported that Vergara began dating True Blood star Joe Manganiello. The pair became engaged on Christmas Day 2014 after dating for six months. They married in Palm Beach, Florida on November 21, 2015.

Vergara has naturally blonde hair, although she is sometimes asked to dye it brown to make her characters look more stereotypically Hispanic.

During her December 2014 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Vergara revealed that she had become a United States citizen after getting a perfect score on her citizenship test.

In 2015, Forbes estimated Vergara's annual income at $28.5 million. As of September 2016, Forbes reported that Vergara was the highest paid actress in television, bringing in $43 million in the past year.