Sofia Vergara is not a stereotype.
Rather, that's what she says about the character she plays on the Emmy Award winning comedy "Modern Family." Vergara, one of the most popular and sought after Latina actress currently on the Hollywood scene, plays feisty, curvaceous Latina Gloria Delgado-Prichett on the comedy series. Gloria, like Sofia, hails from Columbia. Gloria is fiercely protective of her son, Manny, and is never afraid to speak her mind. However, some have accused Gloria of perpetuating a Latina stereotype. Sofia has defended her character from such aspersions.
"Whoever said that all Latin women are the same? It's impossible to caricature millions of women from 20 countries. There are many kinds of Latinas, just like there are many types and styles of women all over the world," the actress told Efe in an interview.
"Gloria has a lot of my mom and my aunts in her, especially the funniest and most temperamental of them. I love my character, it makes me proud to play her as a symbol of many Latin women, but not all of them," she said.
Vergara, like Gloria, is definitely an original--known for her beauty, yet unafraid to act silly or be outspoken. And like her character, Sofia is proud of her Latina heritage.
Sofia Vergara was born on July 10, 1972 in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her mother was a housewife and her father produced cattle for the meat industry. Vergara got married to her high school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez, at the young age of 18, only to file for divorce two years later, People.com confirms. She also gave birth to her son Manolo that same year.
"My life as a mother has been hard, but not a nightmare," she told Florida's Sun-Sentinel about single motherhood. "I do like all working moms do. No life is perfect. What I do, it's part of life."
She then studied pre-dentistry at a university in Columbia for three years. While in school, Vergara was discovered by a modeling scout while walking on the beach. She was offered modeling and acting work, and decided to pursue those offers, leaving college two semesters shy of graduation. She soon decided to move to Miami to pursue more acting and modeling work and to escape the social and political unrest in Colombia. Her brother, Rafael, was murdered in Bogotá in 1998. Therefore, Vergara took her mother and sister with her in addition to her young son.
One of her first gigs was a starring role in a Pepsi commercial. While in Miami, Vergara became the host of Univision's Spanish-language game show "A que no te atreves" ("I Dare You"). "I will always be grateful to Univision for giving me my start," she told the Miami Herald. "Nobody knew me before I started working [there]. But there are a lot of offers now and I want to move on. This is the time."
In 2002, right when her career was kicking off, Vergara was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She underwent surgery to have a thyroid gland removed. "When they tell you that you have cancer, you panic," she told Self in 2010. "Now I'm in remission, and the scar doesn't bother me. After the surgery in 2003, I had my son Photoshop a Frankenstein scar on my neck and sent it to my friends and said, 'I'm fine, I look perfect!' It was really funny."
Vergara then began snagging roles in feature films. After appearing in the film "Big Trouble," Vergara starred alongside Jaci Velasquez and Roselyn Sanchez as a hot-tempered waitress named Cici in 2003's "Chasing Papi." "I did the casting [call] for Chasing Papi and surprised myself and got it," she tells the Los Angeles Times. "I've never taken an acting class in my life. Basically, I'm just going by ear and feeling my way."
In 2009, Vergara made her Broadway debut playing Mama Morton in "Chicago." "Ordinarily, more mature, matronly women are traditional Mama types," director Walter Bobbie told the Miami Herald. "But at the core, she's both warmhearted and tough. Sofia brings that."
Later in 2009, Vergara got the biggest break of her career: she snagged the role of Gloria Delgado-Prichett on the ABC sitcom "Modern Family." She stars alongside Ed O'Neill, who plays her husband Jay, and Rico Rodriguez, who plays her son Manny. "It's very close to me," she told USA Today of her character. "I'm a mother with a kid, I'm an immigrant in this country...I can show a little bit of my country to the States, to the world."
In July 2010, Vergara earned an Emmy, Golden Globe and a SAG Award nomination for her hilarious acting on "Modern Family." In August, the series won the Emmy for outstanding comedy series, which it won again this year. It has received 18 Emmy wins in total.
In 2010, Vergara was also engaged to businessman Nick Loeb while on a trip to Mexico.
She is also featured in the upcoming action film "Machete Kills" with Danny Trejo and Mel Gibson, which premieres October 11.
Vergara continues to support the Latino community by supporting NALIP, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. She also supports the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the Alzheimer's Foundation, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, Stand Up To Cancer and THORN, an organization dedicated to ending child slavery and deterring predators.