Ty Burrell is an American actor and comedian. Ty Burrell is best known for his role as Phil Dunphy in the ABC comedy Modern Family. He grew up in the small southern Oregon town of Applegate, near the California border, where his family ran a business.

Ty Burrell attended Hidden Valley High School in Grants Pass, where he played football and was a lineman for the Hidden Valley Mustangs. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, and graduated with a bachelor`s degree in theatre arts in 1993.

Ty Burrell was the commencement speaker at the school in 2008. While in college he worked as a bartender at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He continued his education at the Penn State University, where he earned an MFA.

In 1999, Ty Burrell worked as a festival actor at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. He has also stated that for a period of time in graduate school, he lived out of his van to save money.