A child star from Modern Family announced a surprising career move five years after the final episode of the beloved sitcom ended.
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons – who played Lily, the adoptive daughter of Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) – recently announced that she will be releasing an EP as she pivots to music.
The now 18-year-old star portrayed the iconic character through all 11 seasons of the show and is taking her new role seriously as her music career will be under the stage name of Frances Anderson.
In a recent interview with TooFab she explained the reasoning behind her new moniker as she said: ‘Frances is my middle name, and it was named after a family friend. I feel like my music gives off nostalgic vibes or I’m a very nostalgic person overall, so having a name after an old family friend of my parents, I really liked that.
‘It’s also a little bit shorter than Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, so there’s that one, too.’
Despite taking on a different name on this career path, the star doesn’t believe that her new name signifies and alter ego.
A child star from Modern Family – Aubrey Anderson-Emmons (seen in LA last month) – announced a surprising career move five years after the final episode of the sitcom ended
– who played Lily, the adoptive daughter of Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) – recently announced that she will be releasing an EP as she pivots to music
Anderson-Emmons said: ‘I wouldn’t say that Francis Anderson is like a really an alter ego. I mean, she feels a little bit different.
‘She feels a little bit younger than me, considering all this music that I’ve written about was stuff from my childhood, things from high school. And I graduated high school early this year, so it feels like she’s a little bit younger than me. She’ll grow beside me.’
She is set to release her debut EP – titled Drown – this Friday, August 8 as the album art shows a low-fi image of the young star pensively looking out of the window.
Her music sounds like indie rock in the vein of Clairo, beabadoobee, and Phoebe Bridgers.
Aubrey released her debut single Telephones And Traffic in May as she has not acted much professionally since the end of the ABC sitcom.
A month later in June she came out as bisexual in a TikTok post.
She made the revelation in a rather humorous fashion, using the audio from a Season 4 episode of Modern Family called The Future Dunphys, where a young Lily claims she’s gay.
The actress shared a video of her lip-syncing to the scene where she declares, ‘No I’m not, I’m gay! I’m gay!’ after Gloria (Sofia Vergara) insists she’s Vietnamese.
The now 18-year-old star portrayed the iconic character through all 11 seasons of the show and is taking her new role seriously as her music career will be under the stage name of Frances Anderson
She is set to release her debut EP – titled Drown – this Friday, August 8 as the album art shows a low-fi image of the young star pensively looking out of the window
Anderson-Emmons captioned the video, ‘People keep joking so much abt me being being gay when I literally am (I’m bi).’
She captioned the post, ‘hehe happy pride month and to all a good night,’ with the hashtags #modernfamily #lily #pridemonth #pride #fyp #bi.
Anderson-Emmons was just four years old when she joined Modern Family as Lily during the show’s third season in 2011.
The actress made history also at four years of age, when she became the youngest actor ever to win a Screen Actors Guild Award, as part of the show’s ensemble cast.
She also appeared as herself on Bill Nye Saves the World in 2017 and on a 2018 episode of Paradise Run.
In May, she shared a video to her 2.7 million TikTok followers that shed some light on growing up in the spotlight.
‘People ask things like, “How did you know you wanted to do that when you were four? How do you know you love something when you’re so young?” And the truth is, you don’t,’ she admitted.
Aubrey insisted that she was ‘not forced into anything,’ adding, ‘My mom wasn’t like, “You’re going to do this,” it was not like that.’
In June she came out as bisexual with a humorous TikTok post
Anderson-Emmons was just four years old when she joined Modern Family as Lily (bottom right) during the show’s third season in 2011; the entire cast are seen in 2013
‘I was not abused on set or anything like that, but you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into at four years old when you sign a contract to be on a show,’ she said.
She also admitted that the show was basically ‘all she knew’ while opening up on facing harsh criticism at such a young age.
‘Also, being on a TV show from a young age, people really took digs at my acting choices or they would say I’m a bad actor,’ she recalled.
‘I don’t feel like I need to prove myself to other people… but it was really hard for me to grow up with so many people’s opinions around me.’
She has only appeared in a 2024 short film called Tallwinds since Modern Family went off the air.
