Sofía Vergara

Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (Spanish: [soˈfi.a βeɾˈɣaɾa]; born July 10, 1972)[1][2] is a Colombian and American actress and television personality. She is known for her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the ABC sitcom Modern Family (2009–2020) and drug lord Griselda Blanco in the Netflix miniseries Griselda (2024). For the former, she was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. The role established her as one of the highest-paid actresses in America.[3][4][5]
Vergara rose to prominence while co-hosting two television shows for Spanish-language television network Univision in the late 1990s. Her first notable acting job in English was in the film Chasing Papi (2003). She subsequently appeared in Four Brothers (2005) and Tyler Perry's comedies Meet the Browns (2008) and Madea Goes to Jail (2009), receiving an ALMA Award nomination for the latter. She also acted in New Year's Eve (2011), The Three Stooges (2012), Machete Kills (2013), Fading Gigolo (2013), Chef (2014), and Hot Pursuit (2015). Vergara has also had voice-over roles in the animated films Happy Feet Two (2011), Escape from Planet Earth (2013), and The Emoji Movie (2017).
Since 2020, Vergara has been a judge on the television talent show America's Got Talent.[6] She is also known as a businesswoman, and brand ambassador. She designs her own fashion line for Kmart and signed with both Pepsi and CoverGirl in 2011. Vergara launched her first fragrance "Sofia by Sofia Vergara" in 2014 and has since released four more fragrances. She is one of the few Latinas in ad campaigns in the United States.[7]
== Early life[edit] ==
Vergara was born to a Roman Catholic family[8] in Barranquilla.[9] Her mother, Margarita Vergara de Vergara, was a homemaker, and her father, Julio Enrique Vergara Robayo, was a cattle rancher for the meat industry.[10][11][12] She was nicknamed "Toti" by her five siblings and many cousins.[13]
Vergara initially studied dentistry for three years at National University of Colombia, but she left two semesters away from completing her degree to pursue opportunities in modeling and show business.[10][14] In 1998, her older brother Rafael was murdered in Colombia during an attempt to kidnap him.[15] Not wanting to be caught in the unrest that resulted in the murder, Vergara emigrated to the United States, settling in Miami, Florida.[9][10][13][16] Her cousin and adopted sister, Sandra, is also a television actress in the United States.[17][18]
== Career[edit] ==
Vergara was discovered by a photographer while walking on a beach in Colombia, and she was quickly presented with offers of modeling and television work.[19][20] She was "apprehensive about doing her first television commercial—until her Catholic schoolteachers gave her their personal permission to take the assignment."[21] She made her first appearance, aged 17, in a Pepsi commercial aired in Latin America.[22] She then began studies at the Creative Workshops School of Acting, where Gloria Estefan also trained.[23]
In 2009, Vergara appeared in Chicago on Broadway as Matron Mama Morton for six weeks.[24][25] She was scheduled to star in The Paperboy, an independent drama directed by Lee Daniels. However shooting was delayed and the revised resumption conflicted with her shooting schedule for the third season of Modern Family and she dropped out.[26] In July 2011, she finished filming the Farrelly brothers' The Three Stooges, her first leading role in a major film. She said, "I play a mean woman that tries to manipulate the Three Stooges into killing her husband so that she gets all the money."[27] In April 2012, she appeared in her son Manolo's YouTube web series Vida con Toty.[28]
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sof%C3%ADa_Vergara_2,_2009.jpg|thumb|Vergara in 2009
She starred 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 from 2010 to 2013.[29] Vergara was the highest-earning woman in U.S. television, earning $19 million for the previous 12 months, according to a list released by Forbes.com on July 18, 2012.[30][31] Vergara was named one of People magazine's "50 most beautiful people", and named by The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard as one of the most influential Latin women in Hollywood.[32] Vergara received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 7, 2015.[33][34] In 2015, Forbes estimated Vergara's annual income at $28.5 million.[35]
In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Vergara and others told the stories of the people killed there.[36][37] As of September 2016, Forbes reported that Vergara was the highest-paid actress in television, bringing in $43 million in the past year.[38] In February 2020, it was announced that Vergara would be a judge on America's Got Talent, starting with its fifteenth season. She returned for her second season in 2021, her third in 2022, her fourth in 2023, and her fifth in 2024.[39][24]
== Business ventures[edit] ==
In 2011, it was announced that Vergara was designing a clothing line for Kmart targeting soccer moms.[40] In 2011, Vergara was named the face of CoverGirl, with the first advertisements appearing in January 2012.[32] In April 2011, she appeared in a Diet Pepsi commercial with David Beckham[41] and another in January 2012.[42] Also in 2011, she appeared in a number of commercials for Comcast's Xfinity brand and State Farm.[43] In 2013, she signed endorsement contracts with Diet Pepsi, Rooms To Go, and the medicine Synthroid.[3] Vergara launched a furniture line with Rooms To Go in 2013.[44] She wanted to create well-made and affordable furniture, saying: "Everyone should be able to make their home look amazing and be proud of their home."[45] In 2014, Vergara became a brand ambassador for the American anti-dandruff shampoo brand Head & Shoulders.[46]
In March 2017, she reached a settlement with Venus Concept for alleged improper use of her likeness, which Vergara said created the false impression that she endorsed their beauty products.[47] She launched her first fragrance "Sofia by Sofia Vergara" in 2014 and has since released four more fragrances.[48][49] In June 2023, Vergara launched the beauty brand Toty.[50][51][52] The brand is named after her childhood nickname.[50]
List of product lines by Sofia Vergara
Year 	Title 	Brand 	Notes
2005 	"EBY by Sofia Vergara" 	EBY (Empowered By You)	Clothing collection[53]
2011–2015 	"Sofia by Sofia Vergara" 	Kmart 	Clothing collection
2013–present	"Sofia Vergara Furniture Collection" 	Rooms To Go 	Furniture line[45]
2018 	"Sofia by Sofia Vergara" (Latin America Exclusive)	Payless 	Shoe and bag collection[54]
2019–present	"Sofía Jeans by Sofía Vergara" 	Walmart 	Clothing collection[55]
2020–present	"Sofia Vergara x Foster Grant" 	Foster Grant 	Eyewear collection[56][57]
2021 	"Sofia Intimates by Sofia Vergara" 	Walmart 	Intimate apparel line[58]
2022 	"Sofia Jewelry by Sofia Vergara" 	Walmart 	Jewelry line
2022 	"Sofía Home by Sofía Vergara" 	Walmart 	Home decoration line
2023 	"Toty" 	 	Vergara's own beauty brand
== Personal life[edit] ==
Vergara has naturally blonde hair. For movies and television, she is sometimes asked to color her hair dark brown or black to make her look more stereotypically Hispanic.[59][60] Vergara was married at the age of 18 to her high-school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez.[9] They have a son named Manolo, who was born in Colombia on September 16, 1991.[61] They divorced in 1993.[9] Vergara and her boyfriend Nick Loeb became engaged in 2012 after dating for two years. On May 23, 2014, Vergara announced that the engagement had been called off.[62] Vergara and True Blood star Joe Manganiello became engaged on Christmas Eve 2014 after dating for six months.[63] They married in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 21, 2015.[64][65] On July 17, 2023, Vergara and Manganiello announced to Page Six that they have separated and are planning to divorce after seven years of marriage.[66] The divorce was finalized in February 2024.[67]
Vergara was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2000 at the age of 28.[68][69][70] She had her thyroid removed, underwent radioiodine therapy, and made a full recovery.[71] She takes medication to prevent hypothyroidism.[72] 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.[73][74] 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."[75] 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.[76][77]
From 2015 to 2017, Vergara was involved in a legal dispute regarding the future of two fertilized embryos produced by in vitro fertilization while she was still in a relationship with Loeb;[78] the embryos were kept in storage in cryopreservation in a medical clinic in California.[79] Following the couple's split in 2014, Loeb filed a lawsuit for custody of the embryos in a California court, but he later dropped that lawsuit when the court demanded that Loeb identify two women who had abortions after he had impregnated them.[80] In December 2016, a right-to-life lawsuit against Vergara was initiated in Louisiana with Vergara's embryos as plaintiffs. [81]
The embryos were named "Emma" and "Isabella" in the lawsuit, and their "trustee" was listed as James Charbonnet, a New Orleans resident of no relation to Vergara.[82] The intent of the suit was to give the embryos a chance to further develop using a surrogate carrier, hence to be born, and to benefit from an inheritance trust that had been created for them and is administered by Charbonnet.[79] Loeb had written "Keeping them frozen forever is tantamount to killing them," in a 2015 op-ed in The New York Times.[83] The suit also tried to terminate parental rights of Vergara because by keeping them in cryopreservation in a medical clinic she allegedly abandoned and neglected the embryos. The legal case was novel and took advantage of Louisiana's embryo laws;[79] the state passed a law in 1986 that declares embryos to be "juridical persons", giving embryos the right to sue or be sued.[84] In August 2017, a Louisiana judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction over the embryos, which were conceived in California.[85][86]
In 2024, Vergara launched Dios Mios Coffee, a brand devoted to elevating female Colombian growers. [87]
== Filmography[edit] ==
=== Film[edit] ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
2002	Collateral Damage 	Airplane Hijacker	Deleted scene[88]
2002	Big Trouble 	Nina 	
2003	Chasing Papi 	Cici 	
2004	The 24th Day 	Isabella 	
2004	Soul Plane 	Blanca 	
2005	Lords of Dogtown 	Amelia 	
2005	Four Brothers 	Sofi 	
2006	Grilled 	Loridonna 	
2006	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 	
2011	New Year's Eve[89] 	Ava 	
2011	Happy Feet Two 	Carmen 	Voice role
2012	The Three Stooges 	Lydia Harter 	
2013	Escape from Planet Earth 	Gabby Babblebrook	Voice role
2013	Fading Gigolo 	Selima 	
2013	Machete Kills 	Madame Desdemona 	
2014	Chef 	Inez 	
2015	Wild Card 	D. D. 	
2015	Hot Pursuit 	Daniella Riva 	Also executive producer
2017	The Female Brain 	Lisa 	
2017	The Emoji Movie 	Flamenco Dancer 	Voice role[90]
2018	Bent 	Rebecca 	
2018	The Con Is On 	Vivien 	
2019	Bottom of the 9th 	Angela Ramirez 	
2021	Koati 	Zaina[91] 	Voice role; also executive producer
2023	Strays 	Dolores the Couch	Voice role
2024	This Is Me... Now: A Love Story	Cancer 	
2024	Despicable Me 4 	Valentina 	Voice role
=== Television[edit] ===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1995 	Acapulco, cuerpo y alma 	Irasema 	Telenovela
1995–1998 	Fuera de serie 	Herself 	Co-host
1999 	A que no te atreves 	Herself 	Co-host
1999 	Baywatch 	Herself 	Episode: "Boys will be Boys"
2000 	Club La Bomba 	Herself 	Host
2002 	My Wife and Kids 	Selma 	Episode: "Samba Story"
2004 	Eve 	April Perez 	Episode: "Party All the Time"
2004 	Rodney 	Carmen 	Episode: "Dream Lover"
2005 	Hot Properties 	Lola Hernandez 	Main role (13 episodes)
2005 	Punk'd[92] 	Herself 	Season 5, episode 4
2007 	Entourage 	Village Girl 	Episode: "Welcome to the Jungle"
2007 	Amas de Casa Desesperadas	Alicia Oviedo 	23 episodes
2007 	The Knights of Prosperity	Esperanza Villalobos 	Main role (13 episodes)
2007 	Dirty Sexy Money 	Sofía Montoya 	4 episodes
2008 	Fuego en la sangre 	Leonora 	10 episodes
2008 	Men in Trees 	Pilar Romero 	2 episodes
2009 	Dancing with the Stars 	Herself 	Guest appearance
2009–2020 	Modern Family 	Gloria Delgado-Pritchett 	Main role, 250 episodes
2011 	Sesame Street 	Herself 	Guest appearance
2012 	Saturday Night Live 	Herself (Host) 	Episode: "Sofia Vergara/One Direction"
2013 	The Cleveland Show 	Señora Chalupa / Herself (voice) 	2 Episodes: "The Essence of Cleveland" "Wide World of Cleveland Show"
2013–2017 	Family Guy 	Flower Saleswoman / Hispanic Woman / Herself (voice)	2 Episodes, "The Giggity Wife" "Emmy Winning Episode"
2014 	Killer Women 	— 	Executive producer
2016 	The Simpsons 	Carol Berrera (voice) 	Episode: "Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles"
2020 	A Modern Farewell 	Herself 	Modern Family documentary
2020–present	America's Got Talent 	Herself/Judge 	Season 15–present
2023 	Germany's Next Topmodel 	Herself/Guest Judge 	Season 18
2024 	Griselda 	Griselda Blanco 	Lead role, also executive producer[93]
=== Music video[edit] ===
Year	Title 	Artist
1997	"Que Diera" 	Carlos Vives
2013	"Aura" 	Lady Gaga
2020	"Yo Visto Así"	Bad Bunny
Category:Actresses
Category:American actresses
Category:Film actresses