Ariel Winter Biography

Ariel Winter Workman (born January 28, 1998), better known as Ariel Winter, is an American actress, voice actress, and singer . She is known for her role as Alex Dunphy in the comedy series Modern Family, as well as the voice of the title character in the Disney Junior show Sofia the First and the voice of Penny Peterson in the 2014 animated film Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Winter and her Modern Family castmates have won four Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Early life

Winter was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 28, 1998, the daughter of Chrisoula (ne 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 (). She states that her sister and brother are fluent in the language, but that she is not, although she knows some basic phrases like ' (, "how are you?") and ' (, "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."

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Kiss Kiss Bang Bang	Young Harmony Faith Lane
2006	Bambi II	Thumper's sister	Voice role
2006	Curious George	Kid	Voice role
2006	Ice Age: The Meltdown	Various characters	Voice role
2006	Over the Hedge	Additional voices	Voice role
2006	Grilled	Dolly
2008	One Missed Call	Ellie Layton
2008	Horton Hears a Who!	Various characters	Voice role
2008	Speed Racer	Young Trixie Shimura
2009	Tales from the Catholic Church of Elvis!	Little girl
2009	Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete	Marlene Wallace	Voice role
2009	Life Is Hot in Cracktown	Suzie
2009	Duress	Sarah Barnett
2009	Opposite Day	Carla Benson
2009	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs	Various characters	Voice role
2009	Afro Samurai: Resurrection	Young Sio	Voice role
2010	Killers	Sadie
2010	Nic & Tristan Go Mega Dega	Lisa
2010	DC Showcase: Green Arrow	Princess Perdita	Voice role
2011	'	Sally
2011	Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension	Gretchen / Various characters	Voice role
2011	Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred	Talia Dawg
2012	Excision	Grace
2012	ParaNorman	Blithe Hollow - kid	Voice role
2012/13	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Parts 1 & 2	Carrie Kelley/Robin (voice)	Direct-to-video; originally released separately
2012	Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess	Sofia	Voice role
2013	Dora the Explorer and the Destiny Medallion	Dora	YouTube short film series by CollegeHumor
2013	Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright	Chrissy Damon	Voice role
2013	Sofia the First: The Floating Palace	Sofia	Voice role
2013	Tad, The Lost Explorer	Sara Lavrof	Voice role
2014	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	Penny Peterson	Voice role
2015	Safelight	Kate
2016	Elena and the Secret of Avalor	Sofia	Voice role
2017	Smurfs: The Lost Village	Smurf Lily	Voice role
2017	Dog Years	Lil

Television credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Listen Up!	Little Girl	Episode: "Last Vegas"
2005	Tickle U	Pipoca
2005	Freddie	Hobo	Episode: "Halloween"
2006	Monk	Donna Cain	Episode: "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut"
2006	So NoTORIous	Little Tori	5 episodes
2006	Jericho	Julie	Episode: "Pilot"
2006	Bones	Liza	Episode: "The Girl with the Curl"
2006	Nip/Tuck	Kid	Episode: "Reefer"
2007	Crossing Jordan	Gwen	Episode: "Faith"
2007	Shorty McShorts' Shorts	Taffy	Episode: "Flip-Flopped"; voice role
2007	Criminal Minds	Katie Jacobs	Episode: "Seven Seconds"
2007-15	Phineas and Ferb	Gretchen / Various characters	Voice role
2008	Ghost Whisperer	Natalie	Episode: "Imaginary Friends and Enemies"
2009	ER	Lucy Moore	5 episodes
2009	'	Little girl	Episode: "What Goes Around / Mask of the Raccoon"; voice role
2009-present	Modern Family	Alex Dunphy	Main role
2011	Jake and the Never Land Pirates	Marina the Mermaid	15 episodes; voice role
2011	Minnie's Bow-Toons	Roxie Squirrel	Episode: "Pom Pom Problem;Pet Adoption"
2011	WWE Raw	Appearing as herself	Appeared February 14, 2011 on the Valentine's Day Edition as a Guest Star
2011	R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series	Jenny	Episode: "Fear Never Knocks"
2012		Gracie	Episode: "Headshot"
2013-present	Sofia the First	Sofia	Voice role
2016	Milo Murphy's Law	Jackie	Episode: "The Wilder West"

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role
2010	Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep	Young Kairi
2012	Final Fantasy XIII-2	Mog
2012	Guild Wars 2	Cassie
2014	Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix	Young Kairi
2015	Final Fantasy Type-0 HD	Moglin

Awards and nominations

Screen Actors Guild Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result
2009	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Modern Family (shared with Ed O'Neill, Sofa Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Sarah Hyland, Rico Rodriguez, and Nolan Gould)
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015

Young Artist Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result
2010	Outstanding Young Ensemble in a TV Series	Modern Family
2011
2012	Best Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film	The Chaperone