Ariel Winter

Early life

Winter was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 28, 1998, the daughter of Chrisoula (née Batistas) and Glenn Workman. She is the sister of actors Shanelle Workman and Jimmy Workman. Her mother's family is Greek, while her father is of English and German descent. She reports that her Greek name is Eleftheria (Ελευθερία). She states that her sister and brother are fluent in the language, but that she is not, although she knows some basic phrases like ti káneis (τι κάνεις, "how are you?") and kalá (καλά, "fine" or "well"). Her favorite Greek musician is Sakis Rouvas, with whom she worked on a movie when she was nine years old.

Career

Winter obtained her first entertainment industry job in a Cool Whip commercial advertisement in 2002 when she was four years old. She had her first television role in an episode of Listen Up!, and followed it with appearances in a variety of shows such as Freddie, Monk, Bones, and ER. In the animated children's show Phineas and Ferb, she voiced the character of Gretchen before winning the regular role of Alex Dunphy in the series Modern Family, which premiered in 2009. She has continued to work in TV animation, including providing the voice of Marina the Mermaid on Disney Junior's Jake and the Never Land Pirates. In 2012, Winter was cast as Sofia, the lead character in a then-new Disney animated franchise Sofia the First. The series premiered in January 2013 on Disney Junior. In 2014, she voiced Penny Peterson, Sherman's enemy turned friend in the 2014 Dreamworks Animation film Mr. Peabody and Sherman. She also lent her voice to characters in the animated films, Disney's Bambi II and Blue Sky's Ice Age: The Meltdown.

Winter has appeared in feature films, most notably in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Speed Racer, Duress, Opposite Day, and Fred 2. For her leading role in the film The Chaperone, she was nominated at the Young Artist Awards 2012 as Best Actress in a Motion Picture.

Personal life

In October 2012, Winter's sister Shanelle Workman filed to become her guardian, alleging that their mother had been physically and emotionally abusive. On May 5, 2014, the court ordered guardianship to Workman and removed Winter from her mother's guardianship permanently. Their mother later released a statement stating that "the family has moved beyond the conflict". On May 15, 2015, Winter declared on Twitter that she was officially emancipated.

In June 2015, Winter underwent breast reduction surgery.

In April 2016, Winter was accepted to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and was slated to begin attendance in the fall semester of 2016. However, on September 12 she confirmed that she will attend UCLA in fall 2017. On her decision to go to college, she explained, "You gotta have something else you can do. I've always been interested in law so I think it'll definitely be something that I'll love to do and also go to school for."