Modern Family Stars Who Are Unrecognizable In Real Life Now

After gracing our screens for 11 seasons, the cast of "Modern Family" said goodbye to their respective roles in 2020. After wrapping their final day of filming, Sofía Vergara posted a video on Instagram of the actors and crew gathered around the set, singing "Good Riddance" by Green Day. As difficult as it was for them to bid farewell to a job they had held for over a decade, it was equally brutal for the die-hard fans of the ABC sitcom who were watching at home. Tuning in every week, viewers not only saw Phil Dunphy's (Ty Burrell) dad fails and Gloria Delgado-Pritchett's (Vergara) imitation of a helicopter, but watched as the whole family grew up.

Many of the show's stars were only children when they started — Nolan Gould and Ariel Winter were only 11 during Season 1, while Lily actor Aubrey Anderson-Emmons was just 4 years oldwhen she joined the cast a few years later. It's been over a decade since the series' inception in 2009, which means most of the younger cast is all grown up. And since leaving our screens, they're almost unrecognizable today.

Ariel Winter may have mastered the brainiac, know-it-all look while playing Alex Dunphy on "Modern Family," but the actor has totally transformed since then. Winter has gone through a few hair change ups in the last few years, but started her post-sitcom journey with a copper red. She compared herself to strawberry shortcake on Instagram. Since 2020, she has played with many colors, including blonde, pink, a darker red, and back to black — the shade she sported as Alex. Of course, the biggest adjustment to her appearance is that she is glasses-free, simply because Alex's signature specs were a prop and Winter didn't need them in real life.

When you think of Rico Rodriquez, are you picturing the charming, overly sophisticated, hopeless romantic kid, Manny Delgado? Well, he may have played that "Modern" character for 11 years, but Rodriguez is totally unrecognizable now. A photo from the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con on the actor's Instagram will prove just how much he has changed. In the image, Rodriguez is sporting a beard and long, curly hair, which he has tied back in a ponytail. The chain and graphic tee that he dons are a far cry from Manny's button-up dress shirts and fedoras.

Aubrey Anderson-Emmons was once the pre-school aged daughter of Mitch Pritchett (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cam Tucker (Eric Stonestreet), named Lily. Once known on TV for her precocious wit, Anderson-Emmons is all grown up and has started a music career. As of this writing, the actor, who uses the stage name "Frances Anderson," has posted a couple of songs to her YouTube channel, with accompanying videos. In the music video to her song "Don't Forget Me," Anderson-Emmons sings with a soft, deep voice — one that you'd never guess also said "should I get you a wambulance?" on "Modern Family" years before.

For the better part of the initial years after "Modern Family," Luke Dunphy actor Nolan Gould lived off the grid, backpacking through the U.S. and dwelling in a van — all details he got into with on-screen uncle Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his podcast "Dinner's On Me." When he finally updated his fans on social media in 2024, Gould's new look was turning heads. He was a little scruffier than the baby-faced Luke we knew and loved (clearly much taller, too), but people in the comments still saw a lot of Dunphy in him. His muscular physique was the biggest shock of them all, when he posted a rock climbing video on Instagram.

Sarah Hyland was freshly 18 years old when she started on "Modern Family." Today she is a full fledged adult, who has had a breathtaking transformation. If you saw "The Great Gatsby" on Broadway in the spring of 2025, hopefully you weren't fooled by the finger wave updos and flapper dresses, because that was Haley Dunphy (a.k.a Hyland) playing Daisy Buchanan. Hyland's vibrato on stage is something one might never guess she wields, but she's proven herself a star in both "Gatsby" and "Little Shop of Horrors." All this to say, the jazz-age Hyland on Broadway is poles apart from bohemian, ombre-loving Hyland on the sitcom.

While Jeremy Maguire didn't have as long of a run on "Modern Family" as the rest of the tenured cast, his contribution to the later seasons was indispensable. Maguire was only 4 years old when he stepped into his role as Joe Pritchett, but in August 2024, he celebrated his 13th birthday. Photos on his Instagram show how unrecognizable the young actor really is. His taller stature and trendy style are proof of how much he has grown up — we can hear Gloria crying over her little Fulgencio!