What Happened To Alex From Modern Family? Where Ariel Winter Is Now

Ariel Winter started acting in commercials when she was only 4 years old, and by the time she hit puberty, she was already a star. This is, of course, because of her role on the iconic sitcom "Modern Family," where Winter played the brilliant, socially inept middle daughter in the Dunphy family. Since she stopped playing Alex Dunphy in 2020 at the end of the show's run, Winter has been relatively quiet. Unlike some of her co-stars, we have not seen a lot of Winter in recent years. What is the star up to today?

Even before "Modern Family" started in 2009, Winter was consistently working for years. This included work in front of the camera, in projects such as "So Notorious" and "Jericho," as well as voice acting. The star continued to take on other roles throughout her "Modern Family" run, most notably serving as the voice of Princess Sofia in "Sofia the First" from 2012 to 2018. While Winter has continued to act since her legendary sitcom's end, the fortune she earned from the show has allowed her to be choosier with when and how she works. She has branched out from acting to try her hand at everything from producing to podcasting and also moved away from Los Angeles. Considering how her messy childhood dramas played out in the tabloids, can anyone blame Winter for wanting a more off-the-grid adulthood? Here we take a look at what happened to Ariel Winter.

Whereas so many stars move to Los Angeles to get their big break, Ariel Winter is one of those rare specimens who was born and bred in the City of Angels. This is why it was so easy for her to enter the entertainment business as a child, but success brought with it a lot of public scrutiny about her looks, clothing choices, and even her family. Winter's childhood was filled with instability and, once she became famous, much of this drama played out in the tabloids.

Winter was 14 when the Department of Child and Family Protective Services removed her from her mother's care, placing her in the custody of her older sister. She was emancipated three years later and still does not speak to her mom. "It's a really deep, painful, sore, sore part for me that's so much deeper and bigger than I've ever felt ready to talk about," the actor told People in 2025.

Winter and her beau, Luke Benward, moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2022, and leaving Los Angeles helped Winter leave some of her trauma behind and start fresh. "I didn't leave the industry," she explained to People. "I just left the city of L.A. It holds some not-great memories for me, and I'm young and never lived anywhere else, and thought, 'Why not?' If you're no longer on a network show that shoots there, you don't really have to be there, and if I get a network show, I can easily go back."

In today's world, actors no longer need to live in New York or Los Angeles to maintain a thriving career. Dare we say that it is even trendy to live elsewhere? Katherine Heigl moved to Utah, for example, and Alexandra Breckinridge ditched Los Angeles for Georgia. A few locations have become particularly popular with ex-La-La Landers, including Austin, Texas — home to Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, Matthew McConaughey, and many others — and Upstate New York, which houses everyone from Mark Ruffalo to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Nashville, Tennessee, is another hotspot for celebrities fleeing LA, which has made it easy for Ariel Winter to stay connected to the entertainment industry.

Since "Modern Family," Winter's credits have included voicing characters in four episodes of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" and an episode of "American Dad!," and live action projects such as "Like Father Like Son" and "Pools." Winter has plenty of things in the pipeline, too. Particularly exciting is her role in the "Clash of the Thundermans," the next film in Nickelodeon's popular "The Thundermans" franchise.

In addition to acting, Winter has ventured into podcasting (her "Quitters" podcast released episodes through mid-2023), produced the film "Don't Log Off," and started working with the nonprofit SOSA, which fights against sexual abuse. "More than anything, I want my story to be that she uses her platform for good. My journey to figuring things out and healing is now through helping other people. That's all I care about," the star told People.