Before she played Haley Dunphy on Modern Family, Sarah Hyland had spent years building a career across film, television and the stage. She trained in New York, worked as a child performer, appeared on Broadway, and moved to Los Angeles before booking the sitcom in February 2009, according to her later account.
Was Sarah Hyland a child actor?
Yes. ABC’s cast biography says Hyland, a native New Yorker, had worked in stage, television and film since age four. It also says she began dance training at three, studied voice from age seven and attended New York City’s Professional Performing Arts School. Those early foundations led to screen work while she was still a child.
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Modern Family: The Complete Series (DVD) | $119.88 | Buy on Amazon |
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Hyland later described the pace of that career in a 2025 interview with Broadway Direct: “I think by the time I was 17, I had been working for well over a decade and hadn’t made it big yet, but everything was old hat to me.” That is her retrospective description of growing up in the business, not a measure of how much recognition she had received.
What was Sarah Hyland’s first movie?
ABC identifies Private Parts (1997) as the beginning of Hyland’s film roles, saying she played Howard Stern’s daughter. Her early screen credits continued with projects including The Object of My Affection (1998), the 1999 television movie Annie and The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000), according to Apple TV’s selected profile of her work. This is a sample of early credits, not a complete filmography.
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The 1999 Annie was an ABC television movie, where Hyland played Molly. It was distinct from the regional stage production of Annie she performed in later.
Did Sarah Hyland do Broadway before Modern Family?
Yes. Her stage work developed alongside her film and television roles. Broadway Direct reports that Hyland received her Actors’ Equity Association card after appearing in a regional production of Annie in 2002. In 2006, she made her Broadway debut in Grey Gardens, a milestone also noted in ABC’s biography.
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The stage credits show that her pre-sitcom career was not limited to screen acting: she was moving between productions and formats well before she became widely known as Haley Dunphy.
What did Sarah Hyland do just before Modern Family?
Before landing the sitcom, Hyland had a recurring role on NBC’s Lipstick Jungle, as ABC’s biography records. In an April 2020 first-person interview with Glamour, she said that show had been canceled before she booked Modern Family. She recalled, “I booked Modern Family in February 2009 after the show I was on, Lipstick Jungle, had gotten canceled.”
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How did Sarah Hyland get to Los Angeles?
Hyland’s account of the move is practical rather than glamorous: she decided to move to Los Angeles, learned to drive and got her license, then moved to California before booking the part. The details come from her 2020 recollection, rather than an independently documented casting timeline.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why was Modern Family a career turn?
For Hyland, the series marked a shift into sitcom work. In the same Glamour interview, she said, “Modern Family was my first comedy—the first sitcom I’d ever done.” She also described her earlier work as primarily dramatic or crime-related. That makes the role a notable change in format, without suggesting she had never encountered comedy in any capacity before.
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Sources
- ABC: Sarah Hyland cast biography
- Apple TV: Sarah Hyland movies and shows
- Broadway Direct: Sarah Hyland on her career and stage work
- Glamour: Sarah Hyland on growing up on Modern Family
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