21 Things You Didn't Know About Sofia Vergara
21.
Where Sofia came from- Sofia Margarita Vergara was born on July 10th, 1972 in Atlantico,
Colombia, to a Roman Catholic family.
Her mother, Margarita Vergara was a stay at home mom, and her father, Julio Enrique Vergara
who was a cattle farmer for the meat industry in Colombia.
She comes from a large family and has many cousins and five siblings.
She has a younger sister named Sandra Vergara, and she is also an actress.
20.
Education- Growing up, she attended a private bilingual Spanish/English school, called Marymount.
Attending this bilingual school allowed her to master English as well as her native language,
Spanish.
She was raised in a Catholic family home and attended a Catholic school.
But her religious beliefs sometimes conflicted with her modeling and acting successes.
19.
How she was discovered- Sofia was first discovered at the age of 17 by a photographer on a Colombian
beach.
She was quickly offered work, but Sofia was hesitant at first about taking revealing bikini
jobs, but surprisingly her teachers at her school were the ones that encouraged her to
go for her dream after being scouted on the beach.
18.
The start of her career- In 1998, Sofia’s older brother was shot and killed during a
kidnapping attempt.
The whole family later ended up moving to Miami, Florida, to escape the grieve in Colombia
where she was offered a Spanish game show hosting gig called I Dare You.
It didn’t take long at all before she started landing several gigs, including a starring
role in a Pepsi commercial.
Since her family was going through a tough time, she used the money she made in her commercial
and other gigs to support her family.
17.
She starred in Broadway- In 2009, Sofia performed in her first Broadway show as Mama Morton
in the Broadway production ‘Chicago, ’ the show played for five weeks, and the public
has loved her ever since.
That same year she got cast on Modern Family, and In 2007 she starred in the Spanish- language
version of Desperate Housewives, Vergara played the role of Mary Alice.
When she first came to Los Angeles to pursue acting, the only people that recognized her
were the latino valets at nightclubs.
16.
Her love life- Sofia got married at 18 years old to Joe Gonzalez and had her first and
only child at the young age of nineteen.
She named her son Manolo after a character in the movie Scarface.
Their marriage didn't work out, unfortunately, and they divorced a year later.
She then went to the University of Colombia for dentistry for three years.
Sofia raised her son as a single mother, and Manolo is now twenty-four years old and has
a modeling career.
Sofia has also appeared in a “Got Milk” print advertisement with Manolo.
In 2005 Sofia began dating actor Tom Cruise after they met at a party, but the relationship
didn’t last long.
They broke up shortly after they started dating.
She then went on to marry actor Joe Manganiello in November 2015.
Sofia was Joe’s first celebrity crush and said she was his ideal women, and they just
happen to end up married six months after dating!
Joe is in the television show True Blood and the movie Magic Mike.
During this time Sofia also appeared as a guest on the television show Baywatch and
Entourage.
15.
Fun facts- Growing up her nickname when she was little was ‘La Toti.'
She’s always been tall growing up, Sofia is 5’8” tall, and even though she’s
taller than the average women, she says she loves wearing heels and stilettos.
When Sofia was younger she always thought she was too thin, nowadays she's known for
her curves, but Sofia admits when she was younger, she would wear two pairs of jeans
to give the illusion of a fuller more curvy body.
Another fun fact about Sofia is one of her favorite things to do in her free time is
read books.
She says she can read for hours on end and reads three or four books a month.
14.
Forbes Magazine- As stated by Forbes, she was the highest paid television actress in
the United States in 2012, 2013, and 2016.
She has earned $43 million in 2016.
They also ranked her number thirty-two as one of the most powerful women in the world.
In 2015, She was an actress as well as the executive producer in the movie ‘Hot Pursuit.'
With Reese Witherspoon as her costar.
Sofia received award nominations for her role in the film.
13.
Her battle with cancer- As she was climbing her way up to the top in her career, Sofia
was diagnosed with thyroid cancer In 2000.
The actress kept the news private at the time, but she went public with her story in 2011.
This unfortunate disease happened nine years before she joined “Modern Family.”
In 2003 she had surgery to have a thyroid gland removed.
She’s made a full recovery through radiation therapy but still needs to take medication
to manage her thyroid.
She has been cancer free since.
12.
She doesn’t eat red meat- After moving to the United States, even though her father
is a cattle farmer, Sofia says she stopped eating meat because she says it tastes odd
and peculiar compared to Columbia.
Probably because our meat in the U.S is injected with so many hormones, and isn't as natural
as where she comes from.
11.
She's friends with Shakira- Sofia is close friends with singer Shakira.
That’s not surprising because they were both born in the same town of Barranquilla,
Colombia.
Sofia says she wishes Shakira would guest star on Modern Family and play the role of
her sister.
10.
Commercials- In 2011 she was named the face of CoverGirl, appearing in a commercial with
Ellen Degeneres, Which was her first mainstream tv commercial appearing across the country.
She started off being in a diet Pepsi commercial with David Beckham in 2011 and the second
one in 2012.
In 2002 Sofia was a spokesperson for Miller Lite beer advertisements and also appeared
in a Spanish commercial for them.
9.
Her start in Modern Family- She landed a jackpot role after being cast as Gloria on the ABC
sitcom Modern Family; the show costars Ed O’Neill as her husband and Rico Rodriguez
as her son.
As she was growing up, she would watch the show “Married With Children” which starred
Ed O’Neill, so she was already a huge fan of the actor.
Although her role on Modern Family is what made her internationally famous, She has been
in the industry for over two decades.
She was on a Mexican telenovela back in 1995.
8.
Award Nominations- Sofia has been so successful from the comedy show Modern Family that she’s
earned a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and SAG Award nominations for her role on Modern Family.
And she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in
a Comedy Series for 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.
The show has given her a lot of recognition and brought her lots of opportunities.
Most of the time people bring a date to award shows, but in 2013 Sofia bought tickets for
twenty-one of her family members to attend the Emmys in 2013.
7.
Her natural beauty- Vergara was bullied for some of her childhood since she was skinny
her classmates used to make fun of her.
Sometimes she felt like an “Ugly duckling.”
Although it’s almost considered normal to have some plastic surgery done in Hollywood,
Vergara has not had any plastic surgery done on herself; she is all natural.
But maybe she'll get something done in the future.
She said, “Maybe when I'm 45, I'll think about it.”
6.
Her natural hair color- Her natural hair color is blonde!
You would probably never know that considering how natural she looks as a brunette.
The talent industry advised her to dye her hair darker so she would look more Latina.
She made the switch to a darker do because it was more marketable in Hollywood.
5.
Influential in Hollywood- People Magazine has announced her as one of the “50 most
beautiful people” and has also been praised as having a significant influence as one of
the most famous Latina women in Hollywood.
She has been very successful in a lot of things, but her vision of making her sexy looks affordable
to women on a budget, Vergara launched her clothing line called, The Sofia Vergara, and
it is sold at K-Mart.
4.
Her curves- Other than her talent, Sofia’s amazing body has always been the talk of the
town ever since her debut in the Pepsi commercial when she was seventeen.
The curvy actress has a bust size of 32F and has had her dresses custom tailored ever since
she was young.
As a child, she wanted a breast reduction, but now she says she's grateful for her chest
and is glad she never did it.
She said she balances food and exercising and keeps everything in moderation.
She’s never believed in crazy diets and just tries to eat healthy and exercise regularly.
Her biggest problem is sweets.
Even though Sofia tries to eat healthy for the most part, she has been featured in four
ads for McDonald’s and says she loves an occasional Big Mac.
3.
She went to college to become a dentist- She originally wanted to be a dentist.
After high school, Sofia studied to be a dentist.
She never actually intended to be an actress, it just kind of happened when the scout found
her on a beach and asked to take a polaroid of her.
She had always wanted to be a dentist, but you never know what life will bring you.
She ended up dropping out of dentistry school to pursue her acting and modeling career.
Even though she's not a dentist, her dental hygiene didn’t disappear, she's obsessed
with clean teeth, and she makes her son get a teeth cleaning every three months.
2.
Starting her talent company- Vergara co-founded a talent management company, called Latin
World Entertainment.
In the two decades since, LWE has become the biggest Latin American talent management company
in the US.
They have also evolved the company into a multi-million dollar media empire, which allows
them to include their talent in big projects, such as Disney, and Paramount.
1.
Sofia's famous accent- Some people think her accent is unnatural and fake.
But that is as far from the truth as you can get.
Her accent is real!
She admitted that she exaggerates her accent just a little while playing Gloria on Modern
Family, but the voice you hear from Sofia is truly hers.
She has said that people get surprised when they hear her talk in real life, but it’s
something she has had her entire life.