Modern Family Cast (2009–2020)
ABC | Mockumentary Sitcom | 11 Seasons, 250 Episodes | Created by Christopher Lloyd & Steven Levitan
Modern Family is an American mockumentary sitcom that follows three interconnected branches of the Pritchett family in suburban Los Angeles: patriarch Jay and his much-younger Colombian wife Gloria; Jay's daughter Claire and her enthusiastic realtor husband Phil, along with their three children; and Jay's son Mitchell and his flamboyant partner Cameron, who have adopted a Vietnamese baby girl named Lily. Created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, the show premiered on ABC on September 23, 2009, and ran for 11 seasons through April 8, 2020. Modern Family won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series five years in a row from 2010 to 2014, a record at the time.
The Modern Family cast is one of the most award-decorated ensembles in sitcom history. Over its 11-season run, cast members collectively won 22 Emmy Awards — including five consecutive wins for the series itself — and the show was renowned for giving both its adult and child actors substantial material. Ed O'Neill brought gravitas and warmth to patriarch Jay Pritchett, while Sofía Vergara's Gloria became a breakout star of international proportions. Ty Burrell's Phil Dunphy earned him two Emmy wins and is widely cited as one of the great comic performances of the 2010s. The three-household structure gave the Modern Family cast unusual breadth, making this among the largest regular ensembles in American sitcom history.
Main Cast
Ed O'Neill
Jay Pritchett
The gruff, successful closet-company owner and patriarch who navigates late-life fatherhood with a young Colombian wife, an openly gay son, and a daughter with a chaotic household of her own.
Sofía Vergara
Gloria Pritchett
Jay's passionate, fiercely loving Colombian wife, whose loud warmth and fierce maternal instincts make her both an outsider to Jay's quiet world and the emotional heart of the Pritchett household.
Julie Bowen
Claire Dunphy
Jay's high-strung, type-A daughter who manages three children and an overly optimistic husband, eventually returning to the workforce and ultimately taking over Jay's closet company.
Ty Burrell
Phil Dunphy
Claire's endlessly enthusiastic real estate agent husband who sees himself as the "cool dad," idolizes Jay, and approaches every situation with an unshakeable optimism that is both his greatest strength and his most reliable comic trait.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Mitchell Pritchett
Jay's uptight, anxiety-prone lawyer son who strives to be the responsible counterweight to Cameron's big personality, navigating parenthood, marriage, and his complicated relationship with his father.
Eric Stonestreet
Cameron Tucker
Mitchell's extroverted, theatrical partner from rural Missouri who is equally passionate about being a father to Lily, coaching youth football, and staging elaborate emotional moments that Mitchell finds exhausting.
Sarah Hyland
Haley Dunphy
The oldest Dunphy child, a fashionable and initially academically disengaged teenager who matures across the series, eventually becoming a mother and building a career in the fashion world.
Ariel Winter
Alex Dunphy
The academically brilliant middle Dunphy child whose bookish personality and sharp tongue frequently clashes with her more social sister Haley and her comparatively average brother Luke.
Nolan Gould
Luke Dunphy
The youngest and least academically inclined Dunphy child, a good-natured boy whose dim-wittedness and physical comedy served as a reliable source of laughs across all 11 seasons.
Rico Rodriguez
Manny Delgado
Gloria's sensitive, sophisticated son from her first marriage who grows up in Jay's household and endures the disconnect between his old-soul personality and the surrounding suburban world.
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons
Lily Tucker-Pritchett
Mitchell and Cameron's adopted Vietnamese daughter, who from Season 3 onward became a scene-stealing presence thanks to her deadpan delivery and increasingly sharp wit.
Supporting & Recurring Cast
| Actor | Character | Role | Seasons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeremy Maguire | Joe Pritchett | Jay and Gloria's young son together, who joins the cast as a baby and grows into a featured child role by the later seasons | 5–11 |
| Reid Ewing | Dylan Marshall | Haley's goofy, guitar-playing boyfriend who evolves from a comic foil into her husband and the father of their twins by the series finale | 1–11 |
| Shelley Long | DeDe Pritchett | Jay's first wife and the difficult, emotionally volatile mother of Claire and Mitchell, appearing in several episodes before dying off-screen in Season 10 | 1–10 |
| Elizabeth Banks | Sal | Cameron and Mitchell's wild, party-loving friend whose lifestyle contrasts sharply with their domestic stability | 3–9 |
| Fred Willard | Frank Dunphy | Phil's kind, widowed father whose visits are invariably warm and funny; the late Willard brought tremendous affection to the role | 2–10 |
| Wendi McLendon-Covey | Barb Tucker | Cameron's loud, big-hearted mother from Missouri | 3–11 |
| Ty Burrell | Various cameos/Phil alt | Phil's identical cousins appeared in comic one-off episodes | Various |
| Nathan Lane | Pepper Saltzman | Mitchell and Cameron's flamboyant event-planner friend who reappears for major family events including Cam and Mitch's wedding | 4–11 |
| Benjamin Bratt | Javier Delgado | Manny's charming, unreliable biological father whose sporadic appearances in the kids' lives are a recurring source of frustration for Jay | 2–11 |
| Ed Begley Jr. | Bob Balaban | Mitchell's colleague and occasional antagonist at the law firm | 2–5 |
Creators & Production
Christopher Lloyd
Co-creator and executive producer; a veteran television comedy writer whose previous credits include Frasier and Wings
Steven Levitan
Co-creator and executive producer; drew on personal experiences in a blended family to shape the show's three-household structure
Danny Zuker
Writer and executive producer whose sharp, aphoristic dialogue — particularly Phil's "Phil's-osophy" — was among the show's most beloved running jokes
Paul Corrigan & Brad Walsh
Writer-producers responsible for several of the show's most warmly reviewed episodes across its middle seasons
Jason Winer
Directed the pilot episode and numerous subsequent episodes; helped establish the show's handheld, semi-documentary visual style
20th Television / ABC Studios
Co-production partner throughout the series run; the show remains one of ABC's most successful comedy franchises
About the Modern Family Cast
The Modern Family cast was notable from its inception for its deliberate diversity of age, background, and family configuration. Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan wanted to represent three distinct versions of the American family — a blended family with a significant age gap, a nuclear family, and a same-sex couple with an adopted child — within a single extended clan. The casting of Ed O'Neill as Jay was seen as a risk at the time: O'Neill was indelibly associated with the character of Al Bundy from Married With Children, and producers wondered whether audiences would accept him in a more nuanced, sympathetic role. The gamble paid off handsomely. O'Neill's grounded authority gave the show an emotional anchor, and his slow-developing warmth toward both Gloria and his adult children became one of its most consistently affecting through-lines.
The show broke ground with its depiction of Mitchell and Cameron as a same-sex couple navigating parenthood at a time when such representation in mainstream network primetime was still relatively rare. The casting of Eric Stonestreet — a straight actor — in the flamboyant Cameron role drew some debate, but Stonestreet's committed, affectionate performance earned him two Emmy Awards and wide critical acclaim. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who is gay in real life, brought a quiet authenticity to the more buttoned-up Mitchell. The duo's central storyline — getting married in Season 5 — was one of the most watched episodes of the show's run and aired during a pivotal moment in the national conversation on marriage equality in the United States.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who stars in Modern Family?
Modern Family stars Ed O'Neill as Jay Pritchett, Sofía Vergara as his wife Gloria, Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell as Claire and Phil Dunphy, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet as Mitchell and Cameron Tucker, and a large cast of young actors including Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Nolan Gould, and Rico Rodriguez.
Who plays Phil Dunphy in Modern Family?
Phil Dunphy is played by Ty Burrell. Burrell won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the role, in 2011 and 2014, and was consistently cited as one of the show's comic highlights.
How many seasons of Modern Family are there?
Modern Family ran for 11 seasons on ABC, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020, producing 250 episodes. The show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series five consecutive times from 2010 to 2014.
Who created Modern Family?
Modern Family was created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan. The two showrunners drew on personal experiences to shape the three-family structure of the show, with Levitan citing his own blended family background as an influence.
Who plays Lily in Modern Family?
The role of Lily Tucker-Pritchett, the adopted Vietnamese daughter of Mitchell and Cameron, was played by twin infants Jaden and Ella Hiller in Seasons 1 and 2, then taken over by Aubrey Anderson-Emmons starting in Season 3, who continued in the role until the series finale.
How we build these cast lists
For background on how Cast.biz compiles and orders cast credits, see understanding billing order, how TV show casts are built, and our glossary of cast credits.