Sarah Jane Hyland (born November 24, 1990) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for playing Haley Dunphy in the ABC sitcom Modern Family (2009–2020), for which she received a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Born in Manhattan, she attended the Professional Performing Arts School before having minor roles in the films Private Parts (1997), Annie (1999) and Blind Date (2007).
Hyland also had roles in the films Geek Charming (2011), Struck by Lightning (2012), Scary Movie 5 (2013), Vampire Academy (2014), See You in Valhalla (2015), XOXO (2016), Dirty Dancing (2017), and The Wedding Year (2019). She has appeared on Broadway in Grey Gardens (2006–2007), The Great Gatsby (2025), and Just in Time (2025–2026). From 2022 to 2023, Hyland hosted Love Island USA on Peacock.
As a singer, in addition to Broadway theatre and off-Broadway performances, Hyland sang "Closer" and "Don't Wanna Know" (peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 chart in December 2016) with Boyce Avenue. She has also collaborated with BoTalks, Jordan McGraw, Adam DeVine and others.
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Early life and education
Sarah Jane Hyland was born in the East Village of Lower Manhattan (in New York City, New York) on November 24, 1990. She is the daughter of actors Melissa Canaday and Edward James Hyland, and the sister of actor Ian Hyland.
Hyland attended the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan.
Career
Hyland has been acting since her first role as Howard Stern's daughter in the film Private Parts in 1997. She went on to portray roles such as Molly in the 1999 television film of Annie and Maddie Healy in Lipstick Jungle on NBC. Hyland was featured in an Olive Garden commercial along with actress Molly Culver. She also appeared on Broadway as the young Jacqueline Bouvier in Grey Gardens (2006).
From 2009 to 2020, Hyland played Haley Dunphy on the ABC sitcom Modern Family, for which she and the rest of the show's cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series each year from 2011 through 2014.
In 2011, Hyland co-starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Geek Charming. In 2012, Hyland appeared in the film Struck by Lightning. In September 2012, she was involved in a Nintendo 3DS ad campaign along with Dianna Agron and Gabby Douglas.
Additional musical projects and theatre productions Hyland has performed in are: Kerrigan-Lowdermilk Live (2013 concert), Hair (2014 adaptation at the Hollywood Bowl), The Unauthorized Musical Parody of Scream (2014 play at Rockwell Table & Stage) and The Kindred Foundation for Adoption created by Jenna Ushkowitz and Samantha Futerman (2015 fundraiser).
In 2014 and 2018, Hyland was a co-host at the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade (during Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration and The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration), which included dancing and singing with Jordan Fisher. Hyland also made a guest appearance during The Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60 (2016) and Mickey's 90th Spectacular (2018).
In 2016, Hyland covered songs with Boyce Avenue such as "Closer" by The Chainsmokers and "Don't Wanna Know" by Maroon 5, both included on the Boyce Avenue album Cover Sessions Vol. 4, which was released on December 19, 2017. "Don't Wanna Know" peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 chart in December 2016.
In 2019, Hyland partnered with Olay for a skin product campaign.
Personal life
Relationships
Hyland dated her Geek Charming co-star Matt Prokop for four years after meeting in 2010. In August 2014, Hyland obtained a domestic violence temporary restraining order against Prokop for physically and verbally abusing her throughout the four years of their relationship. In October of that same year, the restraining order became permanent.
Hyland dated her Shadowhunters and Vampire Academy co-star Dominic Sherwood from 2015 until 2017.
In 2017, Hyland began a relationship with Wells Adams, a radio and television personality and former contestant on The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise. The couple became engaged in July 2019, and, in May 2020, they purchased a home in Los Angeles, a month before their planned wedding date. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused them to postpone their wedding multiple times. An outdoor bridal shower in early June 2022 marked the end of their two-year delay, and the couple married at a California vineyard on August 20, 2022. Their wedding was attended by Hyland's Modern Family co-stars.
Health
Hyland was diagnosed with kidney dysplasia as a child and received a kidney transplant from her father in April 2012. That kidney failed after a few years, leading to a second kidney transplant in September 2017, donated by her younger brother, Ian. Hyland is on regular anti-rejection medicines and steroids to ensure that her body does not reject her donated kidney; consequently, Hyland has difficulty maintaining weight and muscle mass, and has been put on bed-rest several times, sometimes continuing to film Modern Family simultaneously. Hyland has said that she does not recall shooting some episodes of Modern Family because she was so tired that she slept most of the time she was not shooting her scenes.
In a December 2018 Self magazine article, Hyland said she had contemplated suicide because she felt she was a burden on her family and blamed herself for her body rejecting her father's kidney. Since birth, she has undergone 16 surgeries to improve her health, including numerous kidney surgeries and a laparoscopic surgery to treat her endometriosis.