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You may know her as the Columbian actress with a mouth that has no breaks, but Sofia Vergara is so much more than a motor-mouth. Born in Atlántico, Columbia in 1972, she has gone on to become one of the most successful television actresses, producers, models, and businesswomen in the entertainment industry. She even outperformed celebrities like Kaley Cuoco as the highest-paid actress in a TV show for her role in Modern Family, which also stars Julie Bowen and Ariel Winter. Throughout her career, she has starred in a number of box office hits with A-list actors such as Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Hart, Tyler Perry, and Jennifer Hudson. With a net worth of $180 million, here are 10 of Sofia Vergara's highest-grossing movies and TV shows of her career.
The Smurfs
The CGI-inspired 3D live-action comedy, The Smurfs, was released in 2011. The film was loosely based on the Belgian comic franchise of the same name and went on to become the ninth highest-grossing film of 2011, grossing $563.74 million at the international box office. The computer-animated movie follows Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters), Clumsy Smurf (Anton Yelchin), Smurfette (Katy Perry), Grouchy (George Lopez), Brainy (Fred Armisen), and Gutsy Smurf (Alan Cumming) as they accidentally get sucked into a vortex that transports them to 2011 New York City, with Gargamel (Hank Azaria) and his cat, Azrael (Frank Welker) following close behind. Sofia plays the role of Odile Anjelou, leader of the fictional beauty shop, Anjelou's Cosmetics. The film also features actors such as Neil Patrick Harris, Timm Gunn, and actress Jayma Mays.
The Emoji Movie
Who would've thought that a movie could've been made out of phone expressions? Well, it definitely was, and it was released in 2017 to a not-so-favorable response by critics. The film highlights the life of an emoji named Gene Meh (T.J. Miller) who lives inside the phone of a teenager named Alex (Jake T. Austin). Gene's parents are Mel Meh (Steven Wright) and Mary Meh (Jennifer Coolidge) who are reluctant to have Gene go out to work, but he wants to be of use. However, things go south when Gene is selected by Alex to send his love interest, Addie McCallister (Tati Gabrielle) a smiley emoji, to which he panics, revealing a panicked expression. Gene is then hunted by Smiler (Maya Rudolph) and her bots, and has been considered a "malfunction." Sofia Vergara also played the role of Flamenca, a dancing emoji. Despite its poor reception, the film still grossed $216.56 million against a $50 million budget.
Happy Feet Two
Following the remarkable success of Happy Feet in 2006 which grossed $384.3 million against a $100 million budget, Happy Feet Two was released as the sequel in 2011. The movie was geared more toward children, but the sequel didn't fare as well as the original film, grossing only $157.95 million at the box office against a $135 million budget. Directed as a computer-animated musical comedy, quite a bit of singing and dancing was featured in the movie. It follows Erik (Ava Acres), the son of Mumble (Elijah Wood), and his wife Gloria (Alecia Moore/Pink), who is a unique penguin who gets captivated by a con artist penguin named The Mighty Sven (Hank Azaria). Robin Williams also plays the role of two characters in the movie, Ramón, and Lovelace, who are two of Mumble's friends. Mumble gets a chance to prove to his son that he is great, and The Mighty Sven is found to be a fraud.
New Year's Eve
Also released in 2011 is the romantic comedy-drama, New Year's Eve, directed by film producer, screenwriter, and actor, Garry Marshall. He has also produced other romantic comedies like Valentine's Day (2010) starring Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, and Bradley Cooper and Mother's Day (2016), starring Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, and Jason Sudeikis. But, back to New Year's Eve, the film is shot displaying several various interconnected stories of different people experiencing problems on New Year's Eve. It took an incredible ensemble of some of Hollywood's most talented celebrities to make the movie a success, such as Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Christopher Bridges, better known as Ludacris, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Hilary Swank, and Sofia Vergara. The film grossed a total of $146.85 million at the box office.
Four Brothers
Sofia Vergara can be credited for being one of the most versatile actresses, starring in movie genres from romantic comedies to comedy-dramas, and action thrillers to crime drama films. She showed her acting ability in 2005 when she starred in Four Brothers, directed by John Singleton. The film follows four brothers adopted by a woman named Emily Mercer, who is murdered during a convenience store robbery. The brothers, comprised of Bobby Mercer (Mark Wahlberg), Angel Mercer (Tyrese Gibson), Jeremiah Mercer (André Benjamin), and Jack Mercer (Garrett Hedlund) are reunited after the news of their mother's murder. Together, they terrorize the lives of drug lords and Police Departments in search of their mother's killer. Vergara plays the role Sofi, Angel's spicey girlfriend.
Madea Goes To Jail
Written, directed, and produced by none other than Tyler Perry, it wouldn't be a surprise if he were also the lead actor in the 2009 comedy-drama, Madea Goes To Jail. The film was based on a play that was also written by Perry and follows his cross-dressing character, Madea, as she goes to jail after being arrested for leading police on a high-speed chase. She is then brought before Judge Mablean Ephriam in court and is represented by her nephew and lawyer, Brian (also Tyler Perry). Judge Mablean orders Madea to attend an anger management course. However, district attorney Joshua Hardaway's (Derek Luke) fiance, Linda (Ion Overman), wants Madea put in prison. So at her next court hearing, this time with Judge Greg Matthis, she is sentenced to five to ten years in prison. While in prison, she meets a serial killer named T.T. (Sofia Vergara) who protects her from sexual harassment from other female inmates. The highly entertaining film grossed $90.50 million internationally.
Escape From Planet Earth
In 2013, Vergara found herself in another computer-animated comedy-science fiction film entitled Escape From Planet Earth. Instead of tiny blue midgets stuck in New York, this film follows an astronaut named Scorch Supernova (Brendan Fraser) and his nerdy older brother, Gary Supernova (Rob Corddry) who work together at BASA. The head of BASA, Lena Thackleman (Jessica Alba), tells Scorch and Gary that they are being sent to the "Dark Planet" a.k.a. Earth in response to an SOS. Gary refuses to go and quits his job, only to find that Scorch has already been launched into the atmosphere. Upon arrival at a 7-Eleven on Earth, Scorch is ambushed by General William T. Shanker (William Shatner) and sent to Area 51. Hearing the news, Gary's son, Kip, sneakily tries to launch toward the Dark Planet to save Scorch. Gary also has a change of heart, and they both go to save his brother. Vergara plays an anchorwoman and Scorch's girlfriend on his home planet, Baab. The film grossed $74.15 million globally.
The Three Stooges
From 2011 to 2014, Vergara was featured in numerous films back-to-back. In 2012, she was featured in The Three Stooges, a slapstick comedy based on the film shorts comedy trio from 1934 to 1959 of the same name. Vergara plays the devious role of Lydia Harter in this movie, similar to that of Joan Cusack in The Addams Family, as the wife of Theodore "Teddy" Harter (Kirby Heyborne), who wants to exploit The Stooges and murder her husband for his inheritance. The Three Stooges are played by Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe, Sean Hayes as Larry, and Will Sasso as Curly. The film went on to gross $54.05 million at the box office.
Chef
One of the many films written and directed by Jon Favreau, Chef is a 2014 comedy-drama that highlights the life of Carl Casper (Jon Favreau), the head chef of a Los Angeles restaurant named Gauloises, owned by Riva (Dustin Hoffman), who he frequently crashes with due to his propensity to cook innovate dishes versus Riva's demand that he sticks to more traditional dishes. Carl also has a son named Percy (Emjay Anthony) with his ex-wife, Inez (Sofia Vergara). After receiving a scathing review from famous food critic and blogger Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt) for putting his own spin on a traditional dish, Carl publicly humiliates him in a tweet that goes viral and earns him a large following. However, he is left unemployed and takes up an offer from Inez to accompany her and Percy to Miami. While there, his love for Mexican food is reignited. Inez's other ex-husband, Marvin (Robert Downey), offers Carl a dilapidated food truck, which he accepts and begins working to restore with Percy and his old friend, Martin (John Leguizamo). The food truck becomes a success, and Carl and Inez get remarried. Chef earned a total of $46.82 million.
Modern Family
Sofia Vergara has kept herself busy throughout her acting career. When the Columbian beauty wasn't gracing the movie screen with her charm and wit, she was either lending her voice to animated sitcoms like Family Guy and The Simpsons or playing the role of Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on the ABC sitcom, Modern Family, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a comedy series. It was reported by Variety that Vergara was earning $500,000 per episode before the series ended in 2020. And in 2018, she was recognized as the highest-paid actress on television for the seventh year in a row with $42.5 million. But this phenomenal woman isn't just successful on screen, she is also a thriving businesswoman with her hands in the furniture collection, fragrance, and apparel industries.
Sources: Variety, The Guardian, Roger Ebert, The Independent Critic