Sofia Vergara

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.

In 2000, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had to undergo surgery to have her thyroid gland removed. She made full recovery through radioiodine therapy, but still needs to take medicines to prevent hypothyroidism.

She has a younger brother, Julio, who was deported from the United States to Colombia on May 9, 2011. He had a longtime drug addiction.

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. Her younger sister Sandra Vergara is also an actress.

She 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.

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.

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 for 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.

She started her acting career with the 2002 comedy film 'Big Trouble'. However, her first significant role as an actor came next year, in the movie 'Chasing Papi'.

In 2005, she was cast in the movie 'Four Brothers'. She later acted in two Tyler Perry films, 'Meet the Browns' (2008) and 'Madea Goes to Jail' (2009). She was nominated for an ALMA Award for 'Best Actress in Film' for her performance in 'Madea Goes to Jail'.

The series 'Modern Family' has been one of Sofia Vergara's major performances throughout the years. The show, which became a critical and commercial success, has been running for 8 seasons.