Sofia Vergara Looks Unrecognizable in the First Images From Her New Netflix Series

It's been a minute since fans have gotten a chance to see Sofia Vergara away from the America's Got Talent judging panel and her pals Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, and Howie Mandel — and those same fans may have to do a double-take with the first reveal of her latest project with Netflix. Vergara is returning to acting with a lead role in the streamer's latest true-crime series, Griselda, which chronicles the life of Griselda Blanco, who led one of the most prominent drug cartels during the 1980s and 1990s.

Netflix shared a look at Vergara in full makeup, which has her eschewing her usual brand of va-va-voom sex appeal and over-the-top glamour. Blanco was known as the Cocaine Godmother and rose to pop culture prominence after the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys, Deadline notes. It's also not the first time she's appeared on the small screen. Back in 2018, Catherine Zeta-Jones played Blanco in Lifetime's Cocaine Godmother.

"Griselda Blanco was a larger-than-life character whose ruthless but ingenious tactics allowed her to rule a billion-dollar empire years before many of the most notorious male kingpins we know so much about," Vergara, who also is executive producing the series, said in a statement. She is also serving as a co-executive producer on the project.

Griselda is Vergara's first TV project after playing Modern Family's Gloria Delgado-Pritchett for 11 seasons. That role earned her four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series from 2010 through 2013 and multiple Screen Actors Guild Award wins for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Since then, she's appeared in various films, like Chef, and lent her voice to animated features, such as The Emoji Movie. She also had a cameo in Bad Bunny's 2020 music video for "Yo Visto Así."