At age nine, he played a character in
Cory in the House. He later had guest appearances on the series
ER,
iCarly,
Nip/Tuck, and
My Name Is Earl. In September 2009, he began playing
Manny Delgado in
Modern Family. His role was said to be "crazy hard" to cast by co-creator
Steve Levitan. In 2010, he said he is sometimes nothing like Manny, although he also named some similarities between them. Later, in 2016, Rodriguez said he had "grown into the character", finding more in common with him. For the role, Rodriguez and the cast of
Modern Family were nominated eight times for the
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, winning four times. The same year
Modern Family was released, he also appeared in a
season six episode of
NCIS as Travis, a boy who discovers a gun and dead body. He wrote a book that was published in November 2012, titled
Reel Life Lessons... So Far. Among other things, he discusses what it was like having
Sofía Vergara as his character's mother on
Modern Family, writing that she treats him like he were her own son. In 2015, Rodriguez played the character of Jose in
Endgame, a
coming-of-age film about a Mexican middle-schooler who joins a
chess team. It received a score of 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on eight reviews. Rodriguez later voiced a character named Raha in
The Lion Guard, part of
The Lion King franchise, which ran from 2016 to 2019. The show's cast also included
Modern Family co-star
Sarah Hyland. In 2016, Rodriguez played a parrot named Cuco in the
animated film El Americano: The Movie. Its director, Ricardo Arnaiz, was very pleased with the casting.
Modern Family ended after eleven seasons in April 2020. He announced on
Instagram that "words cannot even begin to describe the life-changing experience I have had on this show". Since then, he has made appearances as himself on
The Substitute and
Unfiltered, both on
Nickelodeon. ==Personal life==