Sofía Vergara

Sofía Margarita Vergara was born July 10, 1972 in Barranquilla, Atlantico, Colombia. She is a Colombian model and actress.

Her mother is a homemaker and her father produced cattle for the meat industry. She was given the nickname "La Toti" by her five brothers and sisters and many cousins, including television news anchor and reporter Carlos Vergara, who currently works for WTVJ in Miami, Florida. She grew up in her hometown of Barranquilla and was raised in a well-off family, attending a private bilingual (Spanish/English) school. At the age of 18 she got married, and she gave birth to her son Manolo in 1991 at the age of 19. After the break-up of her marriage she studied dentistry at a college in Colombia for three years. Vergara lived in Miami and then Los Angeles, and brought her mother, sister, and son to live with her.

Discovered by a photographer whike walking down a Colombian beach, she was presented with offers in modeling and TV work, and followed that course. Having been raised rather conservatively and devoutly religious, this was a bit overwhelming at first. In an article in the January 2002 Maxim magazine, Vergara was described as "apprehensive about doing her first TV commercial—until her Catholic schoolteachers gave her permission to take the job". She made her first public appearance at the age of 17 in a Pepsi commercial that was widely telecast all over Latin America. In order to support her son, mother, and younger siblings who needed her financial support in the absence of her father, who had departed the family, she dropped out of college in order to earn good wages.

Vergara moved to Bogotá at the age of 20, where she worked as a model on the runway and on TV. From 1995 to 1999, she was co-host with Fernando Fiore on Fuera de Serie ("Out of the Ordinary" or "Over-the-Top"), a series which sent her to exotic places all over the world (this is similar to the U.S. Wild On! travel series). It was telecast on the international Univision Spanish-language network, and it made her a star in the Latin American market and gave her some USA TV exposure. She also co-hosted the Univision show A que no te atreves ("I Dare You"). She recently appeared as a guest star on the HBO series Entourage.

Besides runway and catalog modeling work, Vergara also did independent projects. She was photographed for posters swimsuit calendars in 1998, 2000, and 2002. These were top sellers in Latin America, and also penetrated the North American market. She did South American television ads, and also posed in swimsuits for posters for beer advertising, especially for Miller Lite beer.

Vergara is 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) tall, and she has naturally blonde/sunbleached hair (for films and TV, she is frequently required to dye it brunette to make her look more "Latina"). Vergara was long under an exclusive TV contract with Univision, and after it expired, she accepted a role with ABC in the United States. With ABC, she appeared on the sitcoms Hot Properties and The Knights of Prosperity.

Vergara currently plays Alicia Oviedo in the Colombian version of Desperate Housewives, Amas de Casa Desesperadas. She also currently appears on the ABC drama Dirty Sexy Money as Jeremy Darling's new love interest. She also made a guest appearance in the Mexican soap opera Fuego En La Sangre.