<P> Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (Spanish pronunciation: (soˈfi. a βerˈɣaɾa); born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian American actress and model . </P> <P> Vergara rose to prominence while co-hosting two television shows for Spanish - language television network Univisión in the late 1990s . Her first notable acting job in English was in the film Chasing Papi (2003). Subsequently, she appeared in other films, including Four Brothers (2005) and two Tyler Perry films: Meet the Browns (2008) and Madea Goes to Jail (2009), receiving an ALMA Award nomination for the latter . Vergara's success on television has earned her roles in films The Smurfs (2011), New Year's Eve (2011), Happy Feet Two (2011), The Three Stooges (2012), Escape from Planet Earth (2013), Machete Kills (2013), Chef (2014), and Hot Pursuit (2015). In 2012, 2013, and 2016, she was the top - earning actress on US television . </P> <P> Vergara stars on the ABC series Modern Family as Gloria Delgado - Pritchett, for which she has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards . </P> <P> Vergara was born to a Roman Catholic family in Barranquilla . Her mother, Margarita Vergara de Vergara, was a homemaker, and her father, Julio Enrique Vergara Robayo, was a cattle rancher for the meat industry . She was nicknamed "Toti" by her five siblings and many cousins . Vergara initially studied three years of dentistry at a university in Colombia, but left two semesters away from her degree to pursue opportunities in modeling and show business . She subsequently moved to Miami, Florida, leaving behind unrest in Colombia, where her older brother Rafael was murdered in 1998 during an attempt to kidnap him . Her cousin and adopted sister, Sandra, is also a television actress in the United States . </P>

Who is the actress that plays gloria on modern family