Sofia Vergara Biography

Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian actress, comedian, television hostess, and model.

Vergara had been 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 2003 film Chasing Papi. Subsequently, she appeared in films, including 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 recent films, The Smurfs (2011), New Year's Eve (2011), Happy Feet Two (2011) The Three Stooges (2012), and Escape From Planet Earth (2013). 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 was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Early life

Vergara was born in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her mother, Margarita Vergara Dávila de Vergara, is a housewife, and her father, Julio Enrique Vergara Robayo, produced cattle for the meat industry. "Toti" was the nickname given to Vergara by her five brothers and sisters and many cousins. She grew up in Barranquilla, and was raised as a devout Catholic in a well-off family, attending a private bilingual Spanish/English school, known as Marymount School Barranquilla.

After a marriage at 18 and divorce two years later, Vergara studied pre-dentistry at a university in Colombia for three years. Then, many opportunities arose for her to work in modeling and in show business, and Vergara decided to pursue them, leaving her undergraduate studies two semesters shy of her undergraduate degree. Soon she decided to move to Miami in the US, to take advantage of opportunities and to move away from unrest in Colombia (her older brother was murdered in 1998 during an attempt to kidnap him). She brought her son, mother and sister with her. Her cousin and adopted sister, Sandra, is also a television actress in the United States.

Career

Vergara was discovered by a photographer while walking on a Colombian beach. Soon she was presented with offers in modeling and television work, and she considered accepting them despite being raised both conservatively and religiously. 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 as a performer at the age of seventeen in a Pepsi commercial that was widely broadcast in Latin America.

At the age of 20, Vergara moved to Bogotá, Colombia, where she worked as a runway model and on television. From 1995 to 1998, she was co-host with Fernando Fiore of Fuera de serie ("Out of the Ordinary" or "Over-the-Top"), a travel series in which she visited exotic places around the world. It was telecast on the international Univisión Spanish-language television network, and it made her a star in the Latin American market. It also gave Vergara television exposure in the United States via the Univisión stations. She co-hosted the Univisión show A que no te atreves ("I Dare You"). She appeared as a guest star in the season-four opening of the HBO series Entourage. Besides runway and catalog modeling work, Vergara did independent projects. She was photographed for posters and swimsuit calendars in 1998, 2000 and 2002.

Vergara is tall and has naturally blond hair, although for movies and television, she is sometimes asked to dye it brown to make her look more stereotypically Latina. Vergara was under an exclusive television contract with Univisión for several years, and after it expired she accepted a role with the ABC network in the United States. Vergara appeared on the ABC situation comedies Hot Properties and The Knights of Prosperity. She 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.

Vergara plays Alicia Oviedo in the television show Amas de Casa Desesperadas, the Colombian version of Desperate Housewives. Her character is essentially the Colombian counterpart to the Mary Alice Young character in the American show. She also appeared on the ABC drama Dirty Sexy Money as Jeremy Darling's love interest. Vergara has made guest appearances in the Mexican telenovela Fuego En La Sangre. In 2009, Vergara played "Mama" Morton in the Broadway revival of Chicago for week weeks.

In 2011, Vergara was supposed to star in The Paperboy, an independent drama directed by Lee Daniels. When shooting was delayed for a week (which conflicted with Vergara shooting Season 3 of Modern Family), she was forced to drop out. In July 2011, she finished filming for the Farrelly brothers' The Three Stooges, which The Daily Beast described as her first lead 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 past 12 months on a list released by Forbes.com on July 18, 2012. In 2008, Vergara was 62 on Maxim magazine's "Hot 100" list. She was named one of People magazine's "50 most beautiful people" and has been recognized by both the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard as one of the most influential Latin Women in Hollywood.

Endorsements

In 2011, Vergara was named the new 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 K-Mart 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 this year.

Personal life

Vergara was married at the age of 18 to her childhood sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez. She gave birth to their son Manolo in September 1992. They split in 1993.

In 1998, Vergara's older brother, Rafael, was murdered in Bogota. On May 9, 2011, Vergara's younger brother, Julio, was deported from the United States to Colombia after being arrested in April; Julio also had a longtime drug addiction and previous brushes with the law. "To see somebody dying over 10 years, little by little, that's the worst punishment," Vergara told Parade magazine. "Now he's like another person."

Vergara was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2000. She had her thyroid removed, underwent iodine radiation therapy and made a full recovery. She takes medication daily to control the symptoms of hypothyroidism.

On July 10, 2012, it was reported that Vergara and her businessman boyfriend Nick Loeb were engaged.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Big Trouble	Nina
2003	Chasing Papi	Cici
2004	The 24th Day	Isabella
	Soul Plane	Blanca
2005	Lords of Dogtown	Amelia
	Four Brothers	Sofi
2006	Grilled	Loridonna
	National Lampoon's Pledge This!	Herself
2008	Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns	Cheryl
2009	Madea Goes to Jail	T.T.
2011	The Smurfs	Odile Anjelou
	Puss in Boots	Crazy Lady/Kitten #1 and 4	Voice
	New Year's Eve	Ava
	Happy Feet Two	Carmen	Voice
2012	The Three Stooges	Lydia Harter
2013	Escape from Planet Earth	Gabby Babblebrook	Voice
2013	Machete Kills	Madame Desdemona
2013	Fading Gigolo	Selima
2014	Heat	Filming
2014	Chef	Inez	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Acapulco, cuerpo y alma	Irasema	Telenovela mexicana
1995"1998	Fuera de serie	Herself	Co-host
1999	A que no te atreves	Herself	Co-host
	Baywatch	Herself	1 episode
2002	My Wife and Kids	Selma	1 episode
2004	Eve	April Perez	1 episode
	Rodney	Carmen	1 episode
2005	Hot Properties	Lola Hernandez	Main cast
	Punk'd	Herself	1 episode
2007	Entourage	Jungle Girl	1 episode
	Amas de Casa Desesperadas	Alicia Oviedo	Main Cast
	The Knights of Prosperity	Esperanza Villalobos	Main cast
	Dirty Sexy Money	Sofía Montoya	4 episodes
2008	Fuego En La Sangre	Leonora	10 episodes
	Men in Trees	Pilar Romero	2 episodes
2009	Dancing with the Stars	Herself	Guest Appearance
2009"present	Modern Family	Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
2011	Plaza Sésamo	Herself
2012	Saturday Night Live	Host	Guest Appearance
2013	The Cleveland Show	Herself	1 episode

Awards

Year	Award	Nominated work	Category	Result
2005	Black Reel Award	Four Brothers	Best Ensemble (with cast)
2009	Screen Actors Guild Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (with cast)
2009	ALMA Award	Madea Goes to Jail	Best Actress in Film
2010	NAACP Image Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
2010	Golden Globe Award	Modern Family	Best Supporting Actress " Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2010	Primetime Emmy Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
2010	Screen Actors Guild Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
2010	Screen Actors Guild Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (with cast)
2011	ALMA Award	Modern Family	Favorite TV Actress in a Leading Role
2011	Golden Globe Award	Modern Family	Best Supporting Actress " Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2011	Imagen Foundation Award	Modern Family	Best TV Actress
2011	NAACP Image Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
2011	Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award	The Smurfs	Favorite Film Actress
2011	Primetime Emmy Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
2011	Satellite Award	Modern Family	Best Supporting TV Actress
2011	Screen Actors Guild Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (with cast)
2011	Golden Raspberry Award	New Year's Eve	Worst Ensemble (with cast)
2011	Screen Actors Guild Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
2012	Screen Actors Guild Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
2012	ALMA Award	Modern Family	Favorite TV Actress in a Leading Role
2012	Primetime Emmy Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
2012	Glamour Awards		Comedy Actress
2012	Golden Globe Award	Modern Family	Best Supporting Actress " Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2013	Golden Globe Award	Modern Family	Best Supporting Actress " Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2013	Primetime Emmy Award	Modern Family	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
2013	People's Choice Award	Modern Family	Favorite TV Comedy Actress

See also