Sofia Vergara has been named the highest-paid TV actress of the year by Forbes magazine.
The 40-year-old Colombian-born actress, who costars on the ABC sitcom Modern Family, has earned an estimated $19 million in a twelve-month period beginning May 2011. Her income is derived from salary, endorsements, and a media company - LatinWE - that she co-founded in 1996.
Forbes does not estimate Vergara's earnings from Modern Family specifically, but the Hollywood Reporter said earlier this year that Vergara's was paid in the neighborhood of $65,000 per episode.
The actress has signed English- and Spanish-speaking endorsement deals in the last year totaling $12 million. She also has a clothing line that she sells through Kmart, and for which the big-box store is paying her an advance that will total $7 million by year's end.
Forbes puts the most recent yearly revenues of Vergara's media company at $27 million. The company describes itself as a Hispanic talent management and entertainment marketing firm.
Forbes attributes Vergara's success to the fact that she manages to appeal to both Latino and non-Latino American audiences. This makes her a conduit into the mainstream market and the large and growing Hispanic one. The magazine says that Vergara "has won over American audiences without alienating her Latina roots. For advertisers, the combination is electric."
In some ways, she has even enhanced her Hispanic-ness. A natural blonde, she has revealed in interviews that she had an easier time finding work in Hollywood after she became a brunette and brought her appearance more in line with stereotypical views of Latinos.
In fact, Vergara's story is not the typical rags-to-riches immigrant story. As the daughter of a substantial Barranquilla cattle supplier, she had a comfortable upbringing and attended the private Marymount International School of Barranquilla. She studied dentistry at a Colombian university before leaving to pursue a modeling and acting career.
Her family's comfortable life was undone when her brother was murdered in 1998 in a botched kidnapping attempt.
Just after Vergara on the list of top female TV earners is Kim Kardashian, with estimated reality-TV and endorsement-deal earnings of $18 million; followed by Desperate Housewives co-star Eva Longoria, with $15 million derived from her show, endorsements, and a cookbook.
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