Background

Ethnicity: Sofía Vergara is of Columbian descent, including Spanish (Andalusian, Asturian, Canary Islander, Cantabrian, Castilian, Extremaduran, Leonese, Valencian), Basque, Galician, possibly Catalan, remote Indigenous (Muisca), as well as at least 1/16th Venezuelan, small amounts of French, Italian (including Venetian), Quechua (Indigenous Peruvian and Indigenous Ecuadorian), and Portuguese (including Azorean) ancestry.

Sofia Vergara was born on July 10, 1972, to a Roman Catholic family in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her mother, Margarita Vergara de Vergara, was a housewife and her father, Julio Enrique Vergara Robayo, was a cattle farmer.

She comes from a big family and has five siblings and many cousins. She was nicknamed "Toti". Her cousin and adopted sister, Sandra, is also a television actress in the United States.

In 1998, Sofia’s older brother was killed in gunfire during a botched kidnapping attempt. The family later moved to Miami, Florida, to escape from the unrest in Colombia.

In 2014 Vergara became a naturalized United States citizen.

Education

Sofia Vergara attended Marymount International School Barranquilla, a private bilingual Spanish/English school. She later studied dentistry for three years at a university in Colombia but dropped out without finishing the last two semesters in order to pursue a modeling career.

Career

Sofia Vergara started her career as a model after a photographer spotted her walking on a Colombian beach and quickly offered her work. However, coming from a strict Catholic family, she was initially concerned about accepting the offer and took permission from her teachers to work as a model. At the age of 17, she appeared in a Pepsi commercial aimed at the Latin American audience. At the age of 20, she started working as a runway model in Bogota, Columbia.

Her first major job on television was co-hosting the Univisión travel show, Fuera de serie. From 1995 to 1998, she traveled to exotic locations around the world for the show. The show, which was also broadcast on American network channels, gave her exposure in the United States. By the end of the decade, the formidable Vergara had received the Hispanic Woman of the Year award. Yet tragedy had struck during this time as well, as Vergara's brother was killed by gunfire in her home country in 1998, and her family relocated to Miami. There she hosted the Spanish-language game show A que no te atreves (“I Dare You”) and began landing small roles in American films and TV shows.

In the early 2000s, Vergara became known as a film actress following her debut in 2002's Big Trouble, starring alongside Tim Allen and Rene Russo. 2003's Chasing Papi came next, in which Vergara plays one of Thomas Fuentes' three girlfriends. By the end of the decade, in addition to doing TV work, she had also starred in two films that were directed by Tyler Perry - Meet the Browns and Madea Goes to Jail, in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Also in 2009, the actress debuted on the Broadway stage, playing Mama Morton in Chicago, and began her role as the sexy and assertive Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, wife of Jay (played by Ed O'Neil), on the sitcom Modern Family.

The show was an instant hit commercially and critically and won several Emmy Awards. Vergara has earned four consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as four consecutive Golden Globe nominations.

After being named as the face of CoverGirl in 2011, Vergara had her first mainstream advertisements appearing in the TV across the country. She started off with a Diet Pepsi commercial with David Beckham in 2011 and another one in 2012. She often appeared in the commercials for her own clothing line for soccer moms and also starred in the advertisements of the Comcast’s brand Xfinity and State Farm. Many other companies like Diet Pepsi, Rooms to Go and the Medicine Giant Synthroid have signed her up for commercials and mainstream advertisements.

Vergara has continued to be a comedy contender on the big screen as well. In 2011, she co-starred in The Smurfs and voiced the role of Carmen in Happy Feet Two - a sequel to the original 2006 film. She was part of the ensemble cast of New Year's Eve to round out the year. Later projects have included the over-the-top action flick Machete Kills (2013) as well as art-house projects Fading Gigolo (2013) and Chef (2014), with the latter directed by and co-starring Jon Favreau.

In 2015, Vergara teamed up with Reese Witherspoon in the comedy Hot Pursuit and two years later, lent her voice to The Emoji Movie (2017).

In July 2019 Vergara appeared in Bottom of the 9th, an American drama film, directed by Raymond De Felitta, from a screenplay by Robert Bruzio. It also stars Joe Manganiello, Michael Rispoli, and Denis O'Hare.

Achievements

• 

  Sofia Vergara received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7013 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 7, 2015. She is one of the best-paid actresses in the world, and the top-earning actress in American television, as of 2019.
  
  In 2014, Vergara was ranked as the 32nd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. She had risen from her 2013 position at no. 38.
  
  Moreover, she became a prevalent subject of celebrity blogs and tabloids as the rare female sex symbol to burst onto the international stage in her late 30s. Vergara also proved that she was a savvy businesswoman as she capitalized on her omnipresent celebrity status to grow Latin World Entertainment - a talent-management firm that she co-founded in 1994 - into one of the most-powerful Hispanic media marketing companies in the world.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Lords Of Dogtown

    (See how extreme sports got its start with this critically...)

    2005
  • Fading Gigolo

    (Murray (Woody Allen) talks his friend Fioravante (John Tu...)

    2013
  • Hot Pursuit

    (An uptight and by-the-book cop (Reese Witherspoon) tries ...)

    2015
  • Escape From Planet Earth

    (When a hero astronaut from the blue-alien planet Baab (Br...)

    2013
  • Machete Kills

    (Machete (Danny Trejo) returns to stop a crazed global ter...)

    2013
  • The Smurfs

    (When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny blue Smurfs...)

    2011
  • The Con Is On

    (This stylish, star-studded caper comedy stars Uma Thurman...)

    2018
  • Chef

    (A head chef (Jon Favreau) quits his restaurant job and bu...)

    2014
  • Grilled

    (Ray Romano and Kevin James play a couple of incompetent d...)

    2005
  • Bent

    (In this searing crime-thriller, a discredited cop hunting...)

    2018
  • Big Trouble

    (The lives of several Miami denizens, from ad agents to gu...)

    2002
  • New Year's Eve

    ("New Year's Eve" celebrates love, hope, forgiveness, seco...)

    2011
  • Madea Goes To Jail

    (After a high-speed freeway chase puts Madea in front of t...)

    2009
  • The Three Stooges

    (Left on a nun's doorstep, Larry, Curly and Moe grow up fi...)

    2012
  • National Lampoon's Pledge This

    (A group of freshman female misfits will do anything to ge...)

    2006
  • Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns

    (A single mother living in inner-city Chicago, Brenda has ...)

    2008
  • The 24th Day

    (In this electrifying suspense thriller, driven by superst...)

    2004
  • Wild Card

    (Nick Wild (Jason Statham) is a Las Vegas bodyguard with l...)

    2015
  • Soul Plane

    (After a humiliating experience on an airplane, Nashawn Wa...)

    2004
  • Chasing Papi

    (Three Latina women discover they are all in love with the...)

    2003
  • Happy Feet Two

    (Mumble, The Master of Tap, has a problem because his tiny...)

    2011
  • Four Brothers

    (Four adopted brothers come together to bury the woman who...)

    2005
  • The Emoji Movie

    (Discover the secret world inside your phone where all the...)

    2017
  • Bottom of the 9th

    (Starring Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara. From a produc...)

    2019
  • The Female Brain

    (What makes a woman swipe right for Mr. Wrong? Sofía Verga...)

    2017

• TV series

  • Modern Family

    (Today's American families come in all shapes and sizes. J...)

    2009
  • The Knights of Prosperity

    (Misfits band together to rob celebrities.)

    2007

Religion

Vergara was raised a devout Catholic. Her parents are still devout to this day. In fact, Vergara’s mother convinced her not to get breast reduction surgery, saying that God will punish her if she did.

But Vergara isn’t much of a Catholic anymore, and she feels that God probably doesn’t care too much about her fashion or style choices, saying: "I don’t think God cares if I wear nail polish or not. I don’t think that’s a deal-breaker for him." Still, Vergara believes in God and says she still thanks Him for her many blessings.

Views

Vergara has a rather realistic take on homosexuality. She says: "The Latin community is a very Catholic community. So, it’s always a problem for people to accept it, and they live in denial for many years, the parents, and prefer not to address the problem. And that’s when tragedies and things happen. And, you know, it’s hard. You’re not going to change things in one day."

Quotations: "You have to surround yourself with people who help and support you. It is impossible to do everything - and do it right - if you are doing it by yourself."

"I think I'm going to be stereotyped forever, but I'm not scared of being stereotyped. I'm Latin. I have this accent. I'm lucky that I got this role and showed people that I can be funny."

"People shouldn't stay married because of the kids. That's torture for everyone."

Personality

Bullying marked some of her childhood experiences since she was extremely thin and her classmates would make fun of her body type. In her own words, they made her feel like an “ugly duckling”. Sofía was so self-conscious of her thin frame, she used to wear two pairs of jeans to fill out her figure.

Physical Characteristics: Vergara has naturally blonde hair, although, for movies and television, she is sometimes asked to dye it brown to make her look more stereotypically Hispanic.

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.

She hasn’t had a single inch of plastic work done on her and she proudly admits of having a naturally made sexy body and curves. She also admits about wanting to have breast reduction when she was a child as she was ’embarrassed with them’, but now she is happy for her voluptuous chest.

Interests

• reading

• Writers

  One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

• Artists

  Sergio Rossi

• Music & Bands

  Jon Bon Jovi, Shakira

Connections

In 1990, at the age of 18, Sofia Vergara married her high-school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez. Two years later, in 1992, she gave birth to her son Manolo. However, she separated from her husband the next year. She raised her son as a single working mother.

Vergara and her boyfriend Nicholas M. Loeb became engaged in 2012 after dating for two years. On May 23, 2014, Vergara announced that the engagement had been called off.

Following the breakup, Vergara began dating True Blood and Magic Mike hunk Joe Manganiello that summer. In December 2014, Vergara and Manganiello announced their engagement. That same month during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, she revealed that she had obtained American citizenship. Vergara married Manganiello on November 22, 2015, in Palm Beach, Florida.

Father:

Julio Enrique Vergara Robayo

During many years the actress had amicable relationships with her father in spite of the fact that Julio Enrique was quite a controlling parent. He had great expectations as for his daughter Sofia and made her enter the pre-dentistry faculty, which she left at the age of 18 to study modeling.

But in 1992 they made a long pause in their relationships. Julio Enrique broke up with Sofia’s mother, and that offended his daughter, who stopped talking to her dad.

In spite of her resentment, Sofia was the first to provide his dad for the necessary treatment in 2007, when he had a stroke. During 2 years the man was in comma, and his kids, including Sofia, cared about him and paid for the necessary procedures to help him recover. In spite of their efforts in 2009, the man died, surrounded by the members of his family. Sofia made a pause in her busy schedule and left Modern Family set to say her dad the last farewell.

Mother:

Margarita Vergara

Margarita is Vergara’s role model and the closest person in her life.

Spouse:

Joe Manganiello

Manganiello and Vergara became engaged on Christmas Day 2014 after dating for six months.

Sister:

Veronica Vergara

Veronica confessed that her sister Sofia helped her to start a career in the music industry.

Sister:

Sandra Vergara

Biologically Sandra Vergara is Sofia’s cousin, but officially she is her adopted sister. When Sandra was just 1 month old, Margarita Vergara adopted her, because the girl’s mother had very poor health and couldn’t care about the baby.

In addition to the career of an actress, Sandra is actively involved in the fashion industry. She has been modeling since the age of 24 and co-owns with her nice Claudia Vergara the fashion company “Violetta Rose”.

Nowadays Sandra resides in West Hollywood, California. She insists, that she makes a career herself, and has never asked her stellar sister Sofia for help.

Brother:

Rafael Vergara

Sofia Vergara’s decision to leave Columbia in 1998 was not just her whim or a search for better career opportunities. The actress took her little son, her mother and her siblings and relocated to Miami with just one aim - to make her family members protected.

The reason for such departure was a cruel murder of Sofia’s older brother Rafael. The young man was killed at the tender age of 26.

Rafael Jose Vergara was born in 1971 and is the older brother of Sofia. He was kidnapped in 1994, but then the Vergara family paid the ransom. In 1996 the kidnappers made another attempt, but this time Rafael put up a fight, during which he was gunned.

He was 26 at the moment of his death. Despite all attempts of the policemen to find the killers, they have never been found. There were no witnesses of the event, but till now that case remains one of the most mysterious in the criminal history.

Rafael had bodyguards, but they didn’t follow the young man on the day he was killed. Some detectives connected Sofia’s brother with the local drug dealer and mobster. They presume, that he ordered to shoot Rafael because of the man’s love affair to the mobster’s girlfriend. People, who witnessed the murder, were afraid to speak.

After that Sofia moved her family to the USA. She cared not just about her son, but also about the little daughter of her brother Rafael.

niece:

Claudia Daniela Vergara

Claudia Daniela Vergara often appears by her famous aunt’s side at various red-carpet events.

Brother:

Julio Vergara

Julio was very close to the murdered sibling Rafael. He got used to drugs after his death and was arrested for this reason numerous times. In 2011 he was caught with marijuana pot and was deported from the USA to Columbia.

Sofia confessed to her fans through an interview, that during 10 years her brother Julio was literally dying little by little in spite of all the attempts to save him. He left the college in Michigan and got used to drugs and alcohol.

Son:

Manolo Gonzalez Vergara

Sofia’s fans don’t believe that Manolo is actually her son because they look just like a brother and a sister. No need to say, that the hot mom Sofia serves as a role model for her little boy. Not long ago Manolo decided to follow her example and become a professional model and actor, too.

He appeared opposite his famous mother in some of Head & Shoulders commercials and acted in a number of screen projects, like the series “Guilty Party”, the drama film “Vandal” and others.

Ex-husband:

Joe Gonzalez.

The ex-couple got separated in a friendly way after the issue of busy schedule of Vergara and traveling more for her career.

ex-boyfriend:

Nicholas M. Loeb

On May 1, 2015, it was reported that Vergara and her former fiancé Loeb were in dispute regarding the future of two embryos. These embryos were produced by in vitro fertilization while they were together and are in storage in cryopreservation in a medical clinic in California. In December 2016, a right-to-live lawsuit against Vergara was initiated in Louisiana by three plaintiffs, namely Vergara's embryos, named "Emma" and "Isabella", and their "trustee", James Charbonnet. The purpose of the suit is 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. While a contract between Vergara and Loeb had been signed prior to the creation of the embryos stipulating that neither party could use the embryos without the consent of the other, the lawsuit tries to void this agreement. The suit also tries to terminate the parental rights of Vergara because by keeping them in a tank in a medical clinic she allegedly abandoned and neglected the embryos. Loeb is not part of the lawsuit. The legal case is novel and takes advantage of Louisiana's embryo laws. 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.

colleague:

Katherine Heigl

colleague:

Sarah Parker

colleague:

Hilary Swank

colleague:

Sarah Hyland

colleague:

Brad Pitt

colleague:

Antonio Banderas

colleague:

Jason Statham

References

• Sofia Vergara