Early life

Ferrera, the youngest of six children, was born in Los Angeles, California. Her parents, América Griselda Ayes and Carlos Gregorio Ferrera, were originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1970s. Her mother worked as the director of the housekeeping staff for one of the Hilton Hotels, and stressed the importance of higher education. When she was 7, her parents divorced and her father returned to Honduras. Ferrera's father died in 2010.

Ferrera was raised in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles, where she attended Calabash Street Elementary School, George Ellery Hale Middle School and El Camino Real High School. From the time she was seven years old, when she landed a small role in a school production of Hamlet and then at age 10, the role as the Artful Dodger in Oliver!, Ferrera knew that she wanted to be a performer. Her first play was Romeo and Juliet, and although only in the third grade, she went to the junior high school and auditioned and got the role of the Apothecary. She acted in school plays and community theatre in Los Angeles throughout her youth, though with little help from her mother, who insisted that she pursue other interests because she was concerned her daughter would not be treated fairly. Ferrera disliked her first name as a child and went by her middle name, "Georgine", until she began acting professionally.

While at El Camino High School, she took acting lessons at the age of 15 and was able to pay for them by waiting tables and babysitting. She entered the University of Southern California (USC) on a presidential scholarship, double majoring in theatre and international relations.

Career

In July 2002, Ferrera appeared in her first television movie, Gotta Kick It Up! for The Disney Channel. While at a theatre program at Northwestern University that same year, she made her feature movie debut in Real Women Have Curves. Ferrera followed this with roles in television (Touched by an Angel). She also appeared in the movie Plainsong, based on the novel by Kent Haruf, which also featured Aidan Quinn and Rachel Griffiths. Ferrera played a pregnant teenager, Victoria Roubideaux, who has been kicked out of her mother's house and she is taken in by two kindly brothers who live alone on a farm. In the 2005 film How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer, she starred as Bianca, a 17-year-old third-generation Mexican-American who is disgusted with the boys in her neighborhood but finds romance with a boy from a neighboring town. In 2006, she appeared in the short film 3:52, which won the Audience Award at the San Diego Women Film Festival. Later that year, she featured in the movie Steel City, which received nominations at the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the Sundance Film Festival.

In December 2005, she appeared in the Off-Broadway play Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, directed by Trip Cullman. She won the lead role of Betty in Ugly Betty in 2006. Ugly Betty is an adaptation of the successful Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, in which Ferrera portrays a girl whom her peers find extremely unattractive, thus the series title. As Betty Suarez, Ferrera wears braces, has bushy eyebrows and a disheveled wig, and cosmetics and clothing intended to downplay her own looks, in contrast to most of the "glammed up" characters; Ferrera herself invented the term “Bettification” to describe the process of creating her onscreen persona. For her role in Ugly Betty, Ferrera won the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy. As a result of the award, she was congratulated by the U.S. House of Representatives as being a role model for young Hispanics. On January 28, 2007, Ferrera won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series.

In 2007, TIME chose Ferrera as one of the top artists and entertainers in their "Time 100: The Most Influential People In The World" issue. In July 2007, Ferrera won Imagen Foundation's Creative Achievement Award. On September 16, 2007, Ferrera won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her Ugly Betty role, the first Latina to win in that category. Ferrera starred as Carmen in the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and reprised the role in 2008's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Among other film work, she supplied the voice of Astrid in the hit animated film How to Train Your Dragon (2010). She also appearred in The Dry Land which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and ran at the Dallas International Film Festival where it won the top prize in the Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature.

Ferrera made her London stage debut on November 7, 2011, playing Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago in London's West End. In 2012, Ferrera was featured in the four-hour documentary Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, which premiered on PBS October 1 and 2, 2012. The series introduces women and girls living in very difficult circumstances and struggling to challenge them. The Half the Sky PBS TV series is produced by Show of Force along with Fugitive Films. Ferrera starred alongside David Cross and Julia Stiles in the dark comedy It's a Disaster, which premiered at the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival and had a limited commercial release on April 12, 2013.

On May 17, 2013, ABC announced that Ferrera would return to TV in a limited-run telenovela titled Pedro & Maria, a modern-day take on Romeo and Juliet set in Washington, D.C. The series had been in development at MTV since 2010 with Ferrera serving as director on the project, which would have interactive participation online content from viewers. The series, had it been accepted by ABC, would have been broadcast during the 2013-14 television season, but was not accepted. On March 16, 2015, Ferrera was added to the cast of the upcoming NBC sitcom Superstore, portraying Amy, a 10-year veteran floor supervisor at a superstore named Cloud 9. In addition to her main role, Ferrera has co-production duties as well. This brought the actress back to television five years after Ugly Betty ended its run in 2010.

Personal life

Ferrera first met actor, director, and writer Ryan Piers Williams when he cast her in a student film at USC. The couple became engaged in June 2010, and married on June 27, 2011.

In May 2013, Ferrera graduated from USC, earning a bachelor's degree in International relations, which took her ten years to complete.

Ferrera has also been politically active. She was seen attending the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, pledging her support for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. Ferrera is also active in getting Latinos in the United States to vote through her involvement with the organization Voto Latino by appearing on various news programs.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Real Women Have Curves	Ana Garcia
2004	Darkness Minus Twelve	Luiza	Short film
2005	How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer	Blanca
2005	The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants	Carmen Lowell
2005	Lords of Dogtown	Thunder Monkey
2005	3:52	Kate
2006	Steel City	Amy Barnes
2007	Muertas	Rebecca	Short film; also executive producer
2007	Towards Darkness (Hacia la oscuridad)	Luiza	Also executive producer
2007	Under the Same Moon	Martha
2008	The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2	Carmen Lowell
2008	Tinker Bell	Fawn	Direct-to-video; voice
2010	The Dry Land	Sarah	Also executive producer
2010	Our Family Wedding	Lucia Ramirez
2010	How to Train Your Dragon	Astrid Hofferson	Voice
2012	It's a Disaster	Hedy Galili
2012	End of Watch	Officer Orozco
2012	Half the Sky	Herself	Documentary
2014	César Chávez	Helen Chavez
2014	X/Y	Sylvia	Also producer
2014	How to Train Your Dragon 2	Astrid Hofferson	Voice
2016	Special Correspondents	Brigida

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002-08, 2010-11	Independent Lens	Herself / Host	Seasons 5-9, 12-13; 112 episodes
2002	Touched by an Angel	Charlee	Episode: "The Word"
2002	Gotta Kick It Up!	Yolanda "Yoli" Vargas	Disney Channel Original Movie
2004	Plainsong	Victoria Roubideaux	Hallmark Hall of Fame movie
2004	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	April Perez	Episode: "Harvest"
2006-10	Ugly Betty	Betty Suarez	Main cast; 85 episodes
2011-13	The Good Wife	Natalie Flores	4 episodes
2011	Handy Manny	Graciela Morales	Episode: "Snow Problem"; voice
2012-present	DreamWorks Dragons	Astrid Hofferson	Main cast; voice
2014	Years of Living Dangerously	Herself	Episode: "Winds of Change"
2015-present	Superstore	Amy Dubanowski	Main cast; also co-producer

Short film

Year	Title	Roles	Notes
2010	Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon	Astrid (Voice)
2011	Book of Dragons	Astrid (Voice)
2011	Gift of the Night Fury	Astrid (Voice)
2014	Dawn of the Dragon Racers	Astrid (Voice)

Web

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	Christine	Christine	Main cast; 12 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2002	Sundance Film Festival	Special Jury Prize: Dramatic	Real Women Have Curves	Won
2003	Independent Spirit Award	Best Debut Performance		Nominated
	Young Artist Award	Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress		Nominated
2005	Satellite Award	Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical	The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants	Nominated
	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie Breakout Performance - Female		Nominated
		Choice Movie Hissy Fit		Nominated
2006	ALMA Award	Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture		Nominated
	Imagen Award	Best Actress		Won
	Satellite Award	Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical	Ugly Betty	Nominated
2007	ALMA Award	Outstanding Actress - Television Series, Mini-Series or Television Movie		Won
	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Imagen Award	Best Actress - Television		Won
		Creative Achievement Award	N/A	Won
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	Ugly Betty	Won
	Golden Globe Award	Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy		Won
	Satellite Award	Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical		Won
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series		Won
		Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV: Breakout		Won
		Choice TV Actress: Comedy		Nominated
	TCA Award	Individual Achievement in Comedy		Nominated
2008	Golden Globe Award	Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy		Nominated
	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series		Won
	Imagen Award	Best Actress - Television		Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Satellite Award	Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical		Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series		Nominated
		Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actress: Comedy		Nominated
2009	ALMA Award	Actress in Television - Comedy		Nominated
	Golden Globe Award	Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical		Nominated
	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Imagen Award	Best Actress - Television		Nominated
	Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Television Actress		Nominated
	New York Women in Film & Television	Muse Award	N/A	Won
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series	Ugly Betty	Nominated
	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actress: Comedy		Nominated
2010	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series		Nominated
	Imagen Award	Best Actress - Television		Won
		Best Actress - Film	The Dry Land	Nominated
			Our Family Wedding	Nominated
2011	Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Actress-Animated Female Film	How to Train Your Dragon	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]