Why Sofia Vergara is Still TV’s Highest-Paid Actress Turned Powerful Businesswoman

For the third year in a row, Sofia Vergara is the highest-paid television actress, raking in $37 million between June 2013 and June 2014; compare that to Ashton Kutcher, TV’s highest-paid actor, who’s meager $26 million in the last year doesn’t even come close.

According to Forbes, the Colombian-born actress earns a reported $325,000 per episode, but what we don’t see is that Vergara is actually more of a businesswoman than an actress. Most of her cash comes from her extremely lucrative endorsements and licensing deals.

In the simplest terms, she basically uses her career as an actress as a spring-board into the business of creating empires.

Vergara is the face of Diet Pepsi, CoverGirl, Head and Shoulders, AT&T, and even a hypothyroidism medication called Synthroid. She launched her first fragrance earlier this year on HSN and she also has a 12-year deal with Kmart where she helps the store better appeal to Hispanic shoppers.

She starred in the movie Chef, the highest grossing summer indie film this year at $30 million. Seriously, everything this woman touches practically turns to gold.

Perhaps her most important role is as the co-founder of the multi-million dollar talent management and entertainment marketing firm Latin World Entertainment; they recently teamed up with CNET to launch a Spanish-language tech site.

You know the saying that it’s easier to make money when you have money? Vergara is totally capitalizing off her T.V. popularity by mixing her appeal with business savvy, and her business is booming. She out-earns the second highest-paid actress, Law and Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay, by roughly $24 million.

If ever an actor or actress needed a lesson in business, Sofia Vergara, the hardest working woman in television, is the woman to talk to.