Sofía Vergara is a sharp ensemble comedian whose timing deserves more attention than her accent. We would start with Modern Family: her voice work can be amusing, but it has also left her badly underused.
Fi1m perspective
In Strays (2023), Sofía Vergara voices Dolores the Couch, who turns out to be one of the better characters. We laughed more than we cared to admit at Josh Greenbaum’s dog comedy, helped by the absurdity of giving the furniture a part. The film repeats its few jokes too often, but her contribution is welcome. It is a modest assignment for someone with an established gift for ensemble comedy.
Her breakthrough was Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in Modern Family (2009–2020), alongside Ed O’Neill. Earlier films such as Chasing Papi (2003) had leaned on her appearance and accent. Gloria, an outspoken Colombian wife, was familiar casting, but Vergara brought energy and precise timing to family behaviour people could recognise. Eleven seasons allowed her to sustain a character rather than arrive, supply a familiar voice and leave.
The voice work has not consistently followed that example. In Despicable Me 4 (2024), Valentina is the girlfriend of Will Ferrell’s Maxime Le Mal, and Vergara has almost nothing to do. A recognisable voice cannot make up for a part with so little written for it. The film keeps moving between sketches before any one story has time to develop, so her lack of room is part of a wider problem.
The 2017 film in which she voices Flamenco Dancer is weaker still. Tony Leondis’s trip through smartphone apps has thin characters and tired lessons, with bright colour and occasional slapstick doing what they can. We would not use it to argue against Vergara’s abilities, but neither does it give us a reason to seek out this particular performance.
Griselda (2024) gives her a dramatic lead as Griselda Blanco, and an executive producer credit, with Eric Newman among the producers. She changes her appearance and voice for the role, moving away from the qualities on which so much of her casting has depended. We need not treat her years in comedy as something she had to put behind her. Start with Modern Family; the animated supporting parts can wait.
Biography
Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara is a Colombian-American actress and model. She was born on 10 July 1972 in Barranquilla, Colombia. After being discovered by a photographer on a beach, she began working as a model and co-hosted Spanish-language television programmes on Univision in the late 1990s.
Her first notable English-language film role came in Chasing Papi (2003). She subsequently appeared in Four Brothers (2005), Meet the Browns (2008) and Madea Goes to Jail (2009). In 2009 she began playing Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the ABC series Modern Family, a role she held until 2020. She has voiced characters in animated films including The Smurfs (2011), The Emoji Movie (2017), Strays (2023) and Despicable Me 4 (2024).
Vergara has received multiple nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. She has served as a judge on America's Got Talent since 2020.
