Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (Spanish:[soˈfi.aβeɾˈɣaɾa]; born July 10, 1972)[1][2] is a Colombian and American actress and television personality who has received five nominations each at thePrimetime Emmy Awards and theGolden Globe Awards. She is one of the highest-paid actresses in the United States.[3][4][5]
Since 2020, Vergara has been a judge on the television talent showAmerica's Got Talent.[6] She is also known as a businesswoman and abrand ambassador. Vergara designs her own fashion line forWalmart, and signed with bothPepsi andCoverGirl in 2011. She launched her first fragrance "Sofia by Sofia Vergara" in 2014, and has since released four more fragrances.[7]
Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara was born on July 10, 1972, to aCatholic family[8] inBarranquilla, Colombia.[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 studieddentistry for three years atNational 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 inColombia during an attempt to kidnap him.[15] Not wanting to be caught in the unrest that resulted from the murder, Vergara emigrated to the United States, settling inMiami, Florida.[9][10][13][16] Her cousin and adopted sister,Sandra, is also a television actress in the United States.[17][18]
This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2025)
Vergara in 2009
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 aPepsi commercial aired in Latin America.[22] She then began studies at the Creative Workshops School of Acting, whereGloria Estefan also trained.[23]
She was scheduled to star inThe Paperboy, an independent drama directed byLee Daniels. However shooting was delayed and the revised resumption conflicted with her shooting schedule for the third season ofModern Family and she dropped out.[33] In July 2011, she finished filming theFarrelly 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."[34] In April 2012, she appeared in her son Manolo'sYouTube web seriesVida con Toty.[35]
In February 2020, Vergara was announced as a new judge onAmerica's Got Talent, beginning for itsfifteenth season.[36] She has since appeared on the program for six consecutive seasons. In two out of her six seasons as a judge, Vergara's "golden buzzer" selections have won the show (Mayyas in2022 andJessica Sanchez in2025).[37][38]
In 2024, Vergara earned a historic nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at thePrimetime Emmy Awards for her portrayal ofGriselda Blanco in the Netflix miniseriesGriselda. This nomination made her the first Latina born in a Latin American country to be nominated in this category.[39] Despite her acclaimed performance, Vergara did not win the Emmy, losing toJodie Foster. She humorously acknowledged the loss, joking that she was "robbed" for the fifth time.[40] Vergara's portrayal of Blanco was deeply personal, influenced by the 1996 murder of her older brother, Rafael, by a Colombian cartel. This tragedy profoundly impacted her family and motivated her to take on the role, despite the challenges it presented.[41]
In 2011, it was announced that Vergara has designed aKmart clothing line aimed atsoccer moms.[42] In 2011, Vergara was named the face ofCoverGirl, with the first advertisements appearing in January 2012.[29] In April 2011, she appeared in aDiet Pepsi commercial withDavid Beckham[43] and another in January 2012.[44] Also in 2011, she appeared in a number of commercials forComcast'sXfinity brand andState Farm.[45] In 2013, she signed endorsement contracts withDiet Pepsi,Rooms To Go, and the medicineSynthroid.[3] Vergara launched a furniture line withRooms To Go in 2013. 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."[46] In 2014, Vergara became abrand ambassador for the American anti-dandruffshampoo brandHead & Shoulders.[47]
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.[48] She launched her firstfragrance "Sofia by Sofia Vergara" in 2014 and has since released four more fragrances.[49] In June 2023, Vergara launched the beauty brand Toty.[50][51][52] The brand is named after her childhood nickname.[50]
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 morestereotypically Hispanic.[59][60] She has Italian origins.[61]
Vergara was married at the age of 18 in 1990 to her high-school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez.[9] They have a son named Manolo, who was born in Colombia on September 16, 1991.[62] They divorced in 1993.[9] Vergara and her boyfriendNick Loeb became engaged in 2012 after dating for two years. On May 23, 2014, Vergara announced that the engagement had been called off.[63] Vergara andTrue Blood starJoe Manganiello became engaged on Christmas Eve 2014 after dating for six months.[64] They married inPalm Beach, Florida, on November 21, 2015.[65][66] On July 17, 2023, Vergara and Manganiello announced toPage Six that they have separated and are planning to divorce after seven years of marriage.[67] The divorce was finalized in February 2024.[68] She datedorthopedic surgeon Justin Saliman.[69][70]
Vergara was diagnosed withthyroid cancer in 2000 at the age of 28.[71][72][73] She had her thyroid removed, underwentradioiodine therapy, and made a full recovery.[74] She takes medication to preventhypothyroidism.[75] 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.[76][77] Vergara toldParade magazine, "To see somebody dying over 10 years, little by little, that's the worst punishment. Now he's like another person."[78] During her December 2014 appearance onJimmy Kimmel Live!, Vergara revealed that she had become aUnited Statescitizen after getting a perfect score on hercitizenship test.[79][80]
From 2015 to 2017, Vergara was involved in a legal dispute regarding the future of two fertilizedembryos produced byin vitro fertilization while she was still in a relationship with Loeb;[81] the embryos were kept in storage incryopreservation in a medical clinic inCalifornia.[82] Following the couple's split in 2014, Loeb filed a lawsuit forcustody of the embryos in aCalifornia court, but he later dropped that lawsuit when the court demanded that Loeb identify two women who hadabortions after he had impregnated them.[83] In December 2016, aright-to-life lawsuit against Vergara was initiated in Louisiana with Vergara's embryos asplaintiffs.[84]
The embryos were named "Emma" and "Isabella" in the lawsuit, and their "trustee" was listed as James Charbonnet, aNew Orleans resident of no relation to Vergara.[85] The intent of the suit was to give the embryos a chance to further develop using asurrogate carrier, hence to be born, and to benefit from aninheritance trust that had been created for them and is administered by Charbonnet.[82] Loeb had written "Keeping them frozen forever is tantamount to killing them," in a 2015op-ed inThe New York Times.[86] The suit also tried to terminate parental rights of Vergara because by keeping them in cryopreservation in a medical clinic she allegedlyabandoned andneglected the embryos. The legal case was novel and took advantage of Louisiana's embryolaws;[82] the state passed a law in 1986 that declares embryos to be "juridical persons", giving embryos the right to sue or be sued.[87] In August 2017, a Louisiana judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the court had nojurisdiction over the embryos, which were conceived in California.[88][89]
In 2024, Vergara launched Dios Mios Coffee, a brand devoted to elevating female Colombian growers.[90][91]
^Finn, Natalie (August 8, 2011)."Modern Family Drama".Modern Family Drama: Is Maxim Hottie Sandra Vergara Pretending to Be Sofia's Sister?. E online.Archived from the original on June 22, 2012. RetrievedOctober 8, 2012.
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