Ugly Betty is an American television comedy-drama series starring America Ferrera in the title role, along with Eric Mabius, Vanessa Williams, Ashley Jensen, Becki Newton, Judith Light, Ana Ortiz, Tony Plana, Michael Urie, and Mark Indelicato. The series premiered on September 28, 2006, on ABC in the United States and Canada. It follows the life of the unglamorous and good-natured Betty Suarez and her incongruous job at the ultra-chic New York City fashion magazine Mode.

The series is an adaptation of the Colombian telenovela Betty la fea ("Betty the Ugly"), written by Fernando Gaitán (also author of Café, con aroma de mujer). It is adapted into a New York City setting by creator/developer Silvio Horta and co-producers Salma Hayek and Ben Silverman, whose production companies Silent H, Ventanarosa and Reveille respectively partnered with ABC Studios to create the hour-long program for the U.S. audience. Hayek has appeared on the show as Sofia Reyes, in addition to playing a cameo role as an actress on a fictional telenovela watched by the main character's family in the pilot episode.

Already in its third season, Ugly Betty has received an early pick-up by ABC for its fourth season. Ugly Betty will return in Late June/Early July 2009 in the UK on Channel 4 for Season 3.

Setting and storylines

Ugly Betty is the story of Betty Suárez, a good-hearted girl from Queens, New York, brave but sorely lacking in fashion sense and aesthetic polish. Betty is suddenly thrust into a different world when she is hired as a personal assistant at Mode, a fashion magazine headquartered in Manhattan and part of the publishing empire of the wealthy Bradford Meade and his family. Meade hires Betty, despite being a fish out of water, to look after (and keep out of trouble from womanizing) his son, newly-installed Mode editor-in-chief Daniel Meade. In truth, Betty was hired because she is not as aesthetically pleasing like all of Daniel's other assistants, which has continued to get him in trouble. As time goes by, Betty and Daniel learn to trust one another, and ultimately become friends and allies in a world sometimes beautiful and sometimes maddeningly chaotic.

A cast of characters populates their worlds. Creative Director Wilhelmina Slater, who wanted the Editor-In-Chief position, is Daniel's nemesis, while Betty finds herself dealing with Marc St. James, Wilhelmina's assistant/henchman and receptionist Amanda Sommers (originally Tanen until the end of the first season), who wanted Betty's job in large part, initially, because of her attraction to Daniel. The only friends that Betty trusts at Mode are seamstress Christina McKinney and accountant Henry Grubstick, to whom Betty is attracted; meanwhile, at home she relies on her father Ignacio Suarez, older sister Hilda and Hilda's son Justin. Daniel's family, includes his mother Claire Meade; and, after returning from a two-year disappearance, his transsexual and competitive sister Alexis Meade (formerly known as Alex), who has made a successful transition to being female.