Early life
"La Toti" was the nickname given to Vergara 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 on her father's farm in Colombia, where for recreation and exercise, she liked to swim in a river and ride horses. She came from a moderately well-off family in Colombia and was sent to private bilingual (Spanish/English) schools there, including elementary school. She got married at the age of 18, and she gave birth to her son Manolo in 1991 at the age of 19.. The marriage did not last very long, and then she studied dentistry at a college in Colombia for three years.
Public life and career
Vergara was discovered by a photographer while walking a Colombian beach. Soon, she was presented with attractive 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 Maxim Magazine in January of 2001, Vergara was described as "apprehensive about doing her first TV commercial- until her Catholic schoolteachers gave her permission to take the job" (Sofia Vergara in Maxim Magazine)(Pictures of Sofia Vergara on Maxim.com). She made her first public appearance at the age of 17 in a Pepsi commercial that was widely telecast all over Latin America. Considering that she had a son, mother, and younger siblings who needed her financial support in the absence of her father, who had departed the family, gave her further impetus to drop out of college and go to work where she could 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").
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 170 cm (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"). As for her figure, she says that she has been built this way since she was 13 years old, and it is all 100% natural.
Vergara was long under an exclusive TV contract with Univision, but that has now expired and she was open to accept a role with ABC in the United States. With ABC, she acted in the short-lived sitcom Hot Properties in 2005 and can currently be seen in the sitcom The Knights of Prosperity 'ABC has pulled the low-rated freshman comedy "The Knights of Prosperity," leaving the show's remaining episodes in limbo.
Vergara has been seen with Enrique Iglesias and Latin superstar Luis Miguel. Sofia has lived in the United States for a while now, mostly in Miami and Los Angeles, and she brought other family members including her mother, sister, and her son to live with her. Her older brother was killed in Colombia. His murder is still unsolved.
She will play the role of Mary Alice Young in the Colombian version of Desperate Housewives.
