Nia Vardalos Biography

NAME: Antonia Eugenia Vardalos

OCCUPATION: Actress

BIRTH DATE: November 24, 1962 (Age: 49)

EDUCATION: Ryerson University

PLACE OF BIRTH: Winnipeg, Canada

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Actress, writer. Born Antonia Eugenia Vardalos on September 24, 1962 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. An outgoing girl since childhood, Vardalos began her professional acting career at the Rainbow Stage, a local theater company that helped her land a scholarship to Toronto's Ryerson University in 1986. Two years later, she join Toronto's Second City theater troupe, moving to Chicago's Second City stage shortly thereafter. After moving to Los Angeles to continue acting, Vardalos received bit parts on such sitcoms as The Drew Carey Show.

Drawing on her eccentric Greek upbringing, as well as stories shared by her Greek friends, Vardalos soon began penning a stage play entitled My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The one-woman play drew the attention of actress Rita Wilson and husband Tom Hanks who agreed to turn it into a film. For a paltry $5 million, My Big Fat Greek Wedding debuted in 2002 to become the sleeper hit of the year. With virtually no television or buildboard advertising, the independent film drew record numbers by sheer word-of-mouth momentum. In February 2003.

The series, which had actually been picked up for development prior to the film's release after a CBS executive happened to catch Vardalos' show at the Just for Laughs International Comedy Festival in Montreal, was revamped at the last minute to pick up where the film left off rather than re-tell the courtship story. She also sold a second feature film script, "Connie and Carla Do L.A." (2004) in which she and Toni Colette play working-class dinner theater singers who are forced to go undercover in LA as drag queens-with Hanks and Wilson again serving as producers.