Ariel Winter is taking a break from college.
Ariel Winter
The 20-year-old actress started studying political science at UCLA last year - after previously deferring for a year - but she is taking time off to "pursue" her acting career.
She said: "I do love UCLA, but at the moment I'm taking a break from it so I can continue to pursue my career and also try to have a little bit more of a life because I've been so busy.
"That's really it at the moment. But I think education's really important. I love being there. I love learning.
"I will continue to keep learning and I just wanted to take a break to focus on myself and square some things with myself."
Ariel - who portrays Alex Dunphy in the comedy series - is hoping to broaden her horizons by appearing in further films.
She said: "I would hope to do more movies. Really anything that comes my way that speaks to me or feels rights, something, a new character I haven't done before.
"I'm pretty open. I like doing different things. I like trying things, so for me, it's really whatever happens."
Ariel's latest motion picture sees her appear as wildchild Lil in 'The Last Movie Star', and she enjoys portraying characters who are different to her 'Modern Family' alter-ego.
Speaking to 'Entertainment Tonight', she added: "Doing something different is definitely intentional for me because I want to broaden my horizons and I want to do more movies and I would like to do different things, because I've been doing this show for 10 years next year.
"So I definitely want to do new things."
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