Modern Family Star Aubrey Anderson-Emmons Is Growing Up Fast
Since its premiere in 2009, "Modern Family" has become a classic sitcom with more than 20 Emmy wins and a memorable ensemble cast, many of whom grew up in front of our very eyes. Even since the show ended after 11 seasons and 250 episodes in 2020, it's remained a staple of 2010s television. While many of the veteran actors on "Modern Family" may have just seen it as an immensely successful role, like Ed O'Neill or Sofía Vergara who found fame long before the series premiered, there were several children who spent a large portion of their childhoods filming the series.
One of these kids was Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, who played Lily Tucker-Pritchett, the adopted daughter of Mitchell and Cam. "Modern Family" was her first taste of show business, signing on to the show in 2011 at 4 years old, meaning fans watched her grow from an adorable toddler to a smart-mouthed teenager over the years. Understandably, like with many child actors, it's hard to differentiate Anderson-Emmons from her on-screen character. But, as she told Girls' Life in June 2021, the actor doesn't relate to Lily very much.
"I'm not sassy or a brat! I don't roast my mom 24/7 or walk in the room and do a line and walk out. It's great playing her but I'm not like her. She's definitely a character!" she remarked. Today, Anderson-Emmons is growing up fast and fans of the show can't believe how much she's changed since the end of "Modern Family."
Her mom's agent encouraged her to try out for Modern Family
In the very first episode of "Modern Family," Mitchell and Cameron (played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet respectively) adopt a baby girl named Lily. While this is the character Aubrey Anderson-Emmons became known for, she didn't actually join the sitcom until Season 3. For the first two seasons, Lily was played by twins Ella and Jaden Hiller until their parents ultimately pulled them from the show, opening the door for Anderson-Emmons.
In a TikTok video posted in April 2024, Anderson-Emmons explained how the opportunity to be on "Modern Family" came about when she was just 4 years old. "My mom is also an actor and she's in the industry, and she's also a comedian. And her agent actually told her, like, 'Yo, like she should go out for this,'" she explained. The actor went on to say that she had at least two auditions and did a chemistry read with Ferguson before securing the role.
Following her debut in September 2011, Anderson-Emmons' mom, Amy Anderson, spoke with the Star Tribune about how the young actor was adjusting. "Sure, it's weird to think of your 4-year-old being a celebrity. What has been nice is that Aubrey is having fun and really seems to understand that when she's on the set, she's playing make-believe. She's pretending to be Lily," she said.
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons was homeschooled to accommodate her schedule
As Aubrey Anderson-Emmons continued working on "Modern Family," her schedule revolved around the show and keeping up at school became difficult. During an interview with Yahoo Parenting in December 2014, Amy Anderson explained how she accommodated her daughter's busy schedule by taking her out of school.
"We started homeschooling last March. I must say, I went into it reluctantly, thinking, 'Oh my god, my kid is going to be a freak.' But it made sense — she was only attending her school three days a week during the last five weeks of production and she felt lost there," Anderson said. She added, "Homeschooling has been more work for me of course, but it's what's best for our situation."
During her April 2024 TikTok video, Anderson-Emmons spoke about going to school on set, something most child actors under the age of 16 are required to do by law as a part of their working day. She praised her favorite studio teacher, Miss Sharon, who also taught Nolan Gould (Luke Dunphy), Rico Rodriguez (Manny Delgado), and Ariel Winter (Alex Dunphy). However, when Anderson-Emmons' co-stars got older, she was left on her own. "They graduated all before me, and then when I was kind of 10 years old and above, I was doing school with nobody but the set teacher," she remarked. The actor added that, while the extra one-on-one time with Miss Sharon was nice, her social interactions with other kids became limited.
Her mom gave up a lot to support her
Given the popularity of "Modern Family," it didn't take long for Aubrey Anderson-Emmons to surpass her mother's fame. Although Amy Anderson was flourishing in her career as a comedian and actor, she couldn't keep up with both her daughter's schedule and her own, despite sharing custody with her ex. Eventually, as Anderson told Yahoo Parenting during her December 2014 interview, she had to choose family over fame.
"This is not at all how I thought my life would look. For almost 18 years, I've worked on my acting career and then put everything on hold to help my daughter Aubrey, which has been hard. I'm not resentful but I do struggle with it," she explained. Because her daughter was a minor, Anderson was required to remain on the set of "Modern Family" during the entirety of Anderson-Emmons' working day, which meant the comedian was getting very little sleep.
"I'd catch a red eye from LA to any given city, do a show, come home 24 hours later and head straight to the ABC lot on three hours of sleep to relieve Aubrey's sitter. I'd spend eight hours on set, then go home and still have to do laundry, dinner, bath, and bedtime. I probably made more money than I ever had before, but it wasn't worth it. So I decided to take myself off the road," Anderson concluded. It wasn't easy, but her decision worked out well for her daughter.
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons didn't have much fun on set
During her TikTok video, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons explained how many people assume that growing up on set and in front of the camera must have been a lot of fun. Unfortunately, she had to burst our bubble — the actor revealed that, like any job, filming "Modern Family" was work for her. "What I think people don't realize was, I was working, and if I wasn't working on the set, then I had to do three hours of studio school a day. So, I had no time to rest except [for] lunch," Anderson-Emmons said.
Despite not having as much fun on set as fans might have hoped, the actor did say that there were still many aspects to the job that she loved. When she was 14, she told Girls' Life about what a massive personal impact the sitcom has had. "['Modern Family has] been a huge part of my life. Honestly, it's all I'm known for! People recognize me pretty frequently ... They'll say 'Oh, you look familiar,' or you're trying to make a friend and they're like 'Wait, you're that girl from Modern Family!' It's weird, you know? It definitely affects my daily life sometimes, and friends can choose you for the wrong reasons," she explained.
She has a food review channel with her mom
Back in June 2015, an 8-year-old Aubrey Anderson-Emmons and her mom Amy Anderson debuted their first video on their shared YouTube channel, FoodMania Review. The bio on their channel reads: "We are a mother/daughter team, Amy and Aubrey, tasting and reviewing snacks, candies, and drinks from all over the world ... AND BEYOND! OK, maybe not beyond, but we do love treats so if it's unique, interesting, and cool, we want to try it!"
The duo have made videos for the last nine years, filming themselves trying everything from sour candy to new Diet Coke flavors and plant-based candy bars. Over the years, Anderson-Emmons and her mom have branched out with their content, including subjects like unboxings, song covers, and a vlog series that chronicled their lives during quarantine.
In a July 2017 video titled "Q&A with Amy and Aubrey," the actor and her mom answered questions from some of their fans. When asked what had inspired them to make FoodMania Review, Anderson-Emmons replied, "I really wanted to make a YouTube channel." Anderson elaborated that her daughter had initially wanted to make unboxing videos on YouTube, but that she didn't want to buy her a bunch of toys. "Food I would buy, though," she added.
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons has been involved with several charities
Although Aubrey Anderson-Emmons had an incredibly busy schedule as a series regular on "Modern Family," she still found time to support charitable causes. By the time she was just 7, the young actor had already made contributions to organizations like St. Jude's Hospital, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, amongst many others.
While Anderson-Emmons was of course just playing a character on "Modern Family," Lily's story of adoption actually isn't too far from home for the actor, which she touched on in June 2020. Anderson-Emmons made a video for the I Stand With Immigrants campaign for Immigrant Heritage Month, in which she explained her mother's background. "My family's immigrant heritage is that my mom came here from Korea. She was adopted when she was a baby and she grew up in Minnesota," she said. Anderson-Emmons went on to talk about the importance immigration plays, saying, "Immigrants are important to American life because immigrants influence what all is in America, for example, food."
She returned to public school in ninth grade
After spending the majority of her childhood and much of her schooling on set, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons shifted back to traditional schooling. During her TikTok chat, the actor confirmed that once "Modern Family" ended, she returned to a semi-normal life, saying, "Once high school happened, I immediately went back into public school and I've been there since."
Like any high schooler, Anderson-Emmons has her good days and bad days. While speaking on the podcast "Dinner's on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson" in 2024, she explained that her day at school wasn't the best because they had a speaker come in to talk about college essays. "I'm actually not going to college, probably," she told her former co-star.
Anderson-Emmons elaborated, "Basically, even my college counselor, she was just kind of like, 'Honestly Aubrey, you don't really need to go to college if you wanted to go for theater acting.' And I've asked like some other mentors and some actor people who have been to college, and ... some of them said, 'Go because, you know, you might be lonely if you don't.'" She went on to say that college is a lot of time and money, and she's unsure whether she wants to follow that path in order to continue her work as an actor.
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons has a massive following on social media
Despite the fact that she got her start on a comedy show and her own mom is an established comedian, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons said that going the comedian route probably isn't for her while speaking on "The Real" in September 2018. "I feel like it's too hard. I'm used to being on a script, so I don't usually write my own material. And, no offense, it makes, like too little money," she quipped.
However, in more recent years, the high schooler seems to have changed her tune. While Anderson-Emmons shares videos of her songs, outfits, and brand endorsements on social media, many of her videos on TikTok are comedic lip syncs and sketches. Over the years, the actor's content has clearly resonated with her viewers, of which she has 1.3 million on Instagram and 2.2 million on TikTok. Some of her popularity likely comes from her time on "Modern Family," but if Anderson-Emmons decides to never return to acting, she could probably make her living as an Instagram influencer, given her impressive following and knack for regularly creating content.
She is in a band
Not only has Aubrey Anderson-Emmons established her performance capabilities on screen, but she's also the leading lady of a four-person band called October. It doesn't seem like the Los Angeles-based group has been around for long, but they're slowly building their fan base on Instagram, having gained nearly 10,000 followers already. In November 2023, the star shared a post about having performed at a bar in Hollywood called The Bourbon Room. She shared a few action shots of the multi-genre band with the caption, "Had the most amazing time playing our first show."
Anderson-Emmons has also demonstrated her musical talent several times on her own Instagram page, often singing and playing acoustic songs on the guitar that she wrote, as well as some covers. Although October is a young band made up of high schoolers, there's no doubt that they have the potential to go far someday with the "Modern Family" alum as their singer.
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons has a high school romance
If you've been watching "Modern Family" since the beginning, then it's hard to believe how grown up the child actors on the show have become. From the stunning transformation of Ariel Winter to the incredible evolution of Nolan Gould, and of course, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons' nearly-grown up life now that she's in high school.
There's no doubt that the actor has been holding her own during this transitional period in her life, especially if she's following the advice she had for other girls during her interview with Girls' Life in 2021. "Don't let people change you. Express yourself how you want to express yourself, not the way someone else does. If it's not hurting anyone it doesn't matter. Don't let people tell you what to wear or what to do with your life. Just be you," she remarked at the time.
If you can believe it, Anderson-Emmons even has a high school sweetheart now — you can just imagine how Mitch and Cam would react. Her boyfriend Phoenix Reed is a fellow musician who's in his own band called Sweet Silver. The two appear to have been dating since at least January 2022, when they made themselves Instagram-official, and have shared several moments with social media, including Disneyland and prom.
Her on-screen dad attended her high school play
Despite the fact that Aubrey Anderson-Emmons returned to normalcy after "Modern Family" ended, enrolling in high school and living life as an ordinary teen, she didn't give up on her love for acting. In fact, she's been in several school plays and her parents are often in attendance to support her — and we don't mean just her biological parents.
In November 2023, Jesse Tyler Ferguson made a post on Instagram about attending Anderson-Emmons' high school play. "Got to see my talented pretend daughter @aubreyandersonemmons in her high school production of THE BURN. It's crazy to think Aubrey was just a few months older than Beckett when I met her! Look at her now!!! Congrats, Aubrey! You were SO great! Love you! You make a pretend papa proud," he wrote.
It wasn't the last time Ferguson supported his former co-star either, as he attended another one of her school productions in March 2024, "The Theory of Relativity." This time, he brought another former "Modern Family" star with him: Julie Bowen (who played Claire Dunphy on the show). On Ferguson's podcast in June 2024, he explained how his TV daughter's mom will let him know whenever she's doing a school play so he can attend. Anderson-Emmons later told the host, "I was like oh my god, ain't no way Jesse's going to be here, and he's literally won a Tony. It's so scary, like you're so accomplished when it comes to theater."
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons showed off her prom dress in 2024
If you can believe it, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons is almost finished with high school, and in May 2024, she showed off a sweet milestone on TikTok to immortalize the moment. Fans were shocked to see what the child star looked like now when she showed off her prom dress in the video, which has received upwards of 2 million likes. In her post, Anderson-Emmons first appears dressed down, lip syncing to a scene from 2003's "Cat in the Hat."
Cut to: the young actor all dolled up in a chic black gown, white corsage, and earrings as she stood next to her prom date (and boyfriend), Phoenix Reed. Anderson-Emmons looked beautiful in the video, which she later shared to Instagram, along with several other sweet snaps from the special night. The comment section of her post was flooded with compliments about how beautiful she looked, gifs from "Modern Family," and sweet comments like, "Cam and Mitchell would be so proud."