Nia Vardalos Movies
A film that unquestionably proves the effectiveness that positive word of mouth can have, Nia Vardalos' My Big Fat Greek Wedding was the very definition of the independent sleeper that came from virtually nowhere to become an Oscar nominated breakout hit that would compete with such summer 2002 heavies as Signs, Austin Powers in Goldmember, and XXX. With virtually no television advertising to speak of and no billboards to build an audience in the weeks before its release, My Big Fat Greek Wedding continued to build box-office momentum to become one of the most successful independent features ever released. Born Antonia Eugenia Vardalos in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in September 1962, Vardalos' good-natured and eccentric family encouraged the talented youngster's creativity she began exhibiting when she was merely six years old. Her love of performing led Vardalos to begin her professional career at the Rainbow Stage, a theater company that eventually provided her with the means to get a scholarship to Toronto's Ryerson University in 1986. It was two short years later that the emerging performer would join Toronto's Second City theater troupe, moving to Chicago's Second City stage shortly thereafter. Introduced to future husband Ian Gomez while performing in the Windy City, the couple married in September 1993 and moved to Los Angeles shortly thereafter. Both Vardalos and Gomez began appearing on numerous small-screen shows such as The Drew Carey Show, and it wasn't long before Vardalos, inspired by her eccentric family and her colorful childhood, began to pen a stage play entitled My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Penning her first draft in a mere two weeks, the play was assembled based on her friends' recollection of humorous stories about her family and centered around her account of her and Gomez's memorable wedding. A stage hit that soon drew the attention of actress Rita Wilson, Wilson recommended the play to husband Tom Hanks and after Hanks attended the following night's performance of the charming one-woman play, the couple agreed that a film version would captivate audiences. Though she faced much adversity by means of executives eager to cast a major star and tinker with her winning script, Vardalos stuck to her guns and brought her vision to the screen fully intact for a paltry five million dollars, a gamble that paid off when word of mouth found audiences flocking to the film in record numbers. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Georgia (Nia Vardalos) came to Greece to follow a man. A few years later, she's been cast aside -- alone and adrift in a foreign land. Eventually, her passion for history leads her to a job as a tour guide. But Georgia is bored, and has lost her "kefi" (Greek for mojo) to boot. When taciturn sasquatch Poupi (Alexis Georgoulis) replaces the regular driver at the last minute, the frazzled tour guide thinks that her luck has just hit rock bottom. Thankfully, Georgia's latest batch of tourists is a more lively bunch than she's anticipated, and in between bouts with rival tour guide Nico (Alistair McGowan), she manages to form a genuine connection with wisecracking widower Irv (Richard Dreyfuss), a solo vacationer who maintains a jovial facade despite the fact that he misses his late wife dearly. With a little help from Irv, Georgia comes to realize that true love may be closer than she thinks -- if she could just recapture her kefi and open her eyes. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, (more)
My Big Fat Greek Wedding co-stars Nia Vardalos and John Corbett re-team for this romantic comedy about a carefree florist who falls for a charming restaurateur. Genevieve (Vardalos) loves romance, though she lives by a strict "five dates" rule. At the end of the fifth date, Genevieve typically calls the relationship off. So far, this method has worked like a charm, but when Genevieve meets Greg (Corbett) everything changes. At the end of their fifth date, Genevieve wants more. If she could only break from tradition long enough to realize she's fallen in love, perhaps she'll find out that some guys are worth keeping around. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, (more)
- 2007
- Add The Dialogue: Learning From the Masters - Nia Vardalos to QueueAdd The Dialogue: Learning From the Masters - Nia Vardalos to top of Queue
Dialogue: Learning From the Masters - Nia Vardalos features an interview with the writer and actress responsible for one of he biggest independent hits of all time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. She discusses how she turned her work into a successful film, and touches upon other aspects of her career. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Greg MacGillivray's documentary Greece: Secrets of the Past marks the latest addition to the tidal wave of IMAX features now available on widescreen DVD (including The Rolling Stones: Live at the Max, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, IMAX Space Station, and many others). This forty-minute travelogue unlocks the complexity and majesty of Ancient Greece, via a breathtaking visual exploration of the Greek isles, replete with gorgeous aerial cinematography. The program then tours the relics of antiquity that still linger on the Grecian landscape, including the ruins of the Parthenon and other architectural remnants, while narration on the soundtrack (by My Big Fat Greek Wedding's Nia Vardalos) expostulates on the land's contributions to democratic ideals, science, sculpture, and western politics. As an added bonus, broadly-scaled CGI visuals recreate the Santorini eruption. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nia Vardalos, Christos Doumas, (more)
- 2005
- Add Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters to QueueAdd Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters to top of Queue
Take a walk on the fine line between box-office blockbusters and instantly forgettable bombs as Oscar and Emmy-winning producer/director Bill Couturie sets out to explore just what separates such high-profile hits as Jaws from such room-clearing disasters as Howard the Duck. Executive produced by Variety editor Peter Bart, this documentary includes interviews with such movie industry heavies as Steven Spielberg, Danny DeVito, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Evans, Pierce Brosnan, and Sydney Pollack, exploring precisely how the road to the Razzies is paved with good intentions. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Actress and writer Nia Vardalos, who became an overnight sensation with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, returns to the big screen with this gender-bending comedy. Connie (Vardalos) and Carla (Toni Collette) are best friends who've shared the same dream ever since they were teenagers -- making a name for themselves in the musical theater. However, after years of treading water on Chicago's dinner theater circuit and playing bottom-of-the-barrel nightclubs, the two are facing middle age with minimal career success. One evening after a performance, Connie and Carla have the misfortune of witnessing the murder of nightclub owner Frank (Michael Roberds) by low-level Mafiosi; the gals are seen by the shooters, and they hit the road in fear for their lives. Connie and Carla end up in Los Angeles, where they struggle to create new identities for themselves. After witnessing a drag review at a nightclub, they realize that even they have more talent than most of the men performing that evening, and they decide to pose as female impersonators in hopes of landing a gig. Connie and Carla's new act is an immediate hit, and soon they're the toast of L.A.'s gay community. But the women discover it's difficult to keep on fooling people into believing they're men, and things become even more complicated when the Mobsters discover that Connie and Carla are in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Connie finds herself falling for Jeff (David Duchovny), a regular guy looking for his cross-dressing brother who can't understand why he's developing a crush on a drag queen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nia Vardalos, Toni Collette, (more)
- 2003
- Add My Big Fat Greek Life [TV Series] to QueueAdd My Big Fat Greek Life [TV Series] to top of Queue
It was all but inevitable that the most successful independently produced film of all time, 2002's My Big Fat Greek Wedding, would spawn a weekly, half-hour TV sitcom. What was not inevitable, and indeed a bit surprising, was that the CBS series My Big Fat Greek Life would feature virtually the entire cast of the original film -- with one noteworthy exception. Nia Vardalos, who created the movie and served as a co-executive producer for the TV version, reprised her screen role as Nia (originally Toula) Portokalos Miller, the new Greek-American bride of non-Greek teacher Ian Miller. The two lovebirds did their best to assert their independence, despite the well-meaning omnipresence and interference of Nia's colorful -- and bombastic -- Greek family. In addition to Vardalos, the series featured a number of carryovers from the film, among them Michael Constantine as Nia's domineering restauranteur father, Gus; Lainie Kazan as her eternally freeting mother, Maria; Louis Mandylor as her macho-man brother, Nick; Andrea Martin as advice-dispensing Aunt Voula; and Gia Carides as garrulous cousin Nikki. Conspicuous by his absence on the series was John Corbett, the original Ian Miller; his role was taken over by Steven Eckholdt. My Big Fat Greek Life first aired on February 24, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nia Vardalos, Steven Eckholdt, (more)
- 2002
This 2002 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Nia Vardalos and features musical guest Eve. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nia Vardalos, Eve, (more)
One woman's rocky road to the altar gets played for laughs in this comedy, adapted from the one-woman off-Broadway show written by and starring Nia Vardalos. Toula (Vardalos) is a Greek-American woman who is in her early thirties and single, with no immediate prospects of changing that status any time soon. This bothers Toula a bit, but not half as much as it distresses her mother (Lainie Kazan) and father (Michael Constantine), who want to send her to Greece in hopes of finding a husband in the old country. Toula isn't interested in leaving the country to find a man, but since she works in the family business -- a Greek restaurant in Chicago called Dancing Zorba's -- she has to hear about it whether she likes it or not. One day, after seeing a handsome stranger in the restaurant and not having the courage to talk to him, Toula decides she needs a bit of self-improvement. Despite her dad's misgivings, Toula signs up for a night-school class studying computers, trades in her glasses for contact lenses, gets a different job at a travel agency, and spruces herself up with a new look and a new attitude. To her very pleasant surprise, she once again encounters the handsome stranger, who soon asks her out on a date. Schoolteacher Ian Miller (John Corbett) is seemingly perfect -- he's tall, handsome, smart, good-natured, and soon in love with Toula -- except for two little things: he's not Greek, and he's a vegetarian, both of which horrify Toula's family. When Ian pops the question (and Toula says yes), the bride-to-be has to negotiate a reasonably peaceful meeting between Ian's upper-class parents and her own working-class extended family. There's also the matter of the wedding, which Toula's mother is planning around the notion that quantity IS quality. My Big Fat Greek Wedding also features Ian Gomez (Vardalos' real-life husband), Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin, and Joey Fatone (from the pop group *NSYNC). Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson helped produce the film through the auspices of their production company, Playtone. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, (more)
- 1999
Topanga (Danielle Fishel) drags a reluctant Cory (Ben Savage) to the chapel to help her finalize their marriage plans. While observing the preparations for another wedding, Cory is shocked when the bride's disgruntled father (Richard Portnow) offers him a million dollars to marry his daughter--immediately! Meanwhile, the virtual father-son relationship between Eric (Will Friedle) and Tommy (JB Gaynor), the underprivileged youngster whom Eric met at Christmastime, takes a unexpectedly poignant turn as the boy prepares to move in with his foster family. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1999
- R
In this romantic comedy-drama, Samantha (Tia Carrere) and Jack (David Charvet) are two neighbors who don't get along. What they don't know, however, is that they've also been falling in love with each other while exchanging notes in an internet dating service's chat room. Meet Prince Charming was the feature debut for producer/director Brett Parker. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Charvet, Tia Carrere, (more)
- 1997
Tired of being pushed around by everyone, Drew vows to become more self-assertive--perhaps even more ruthless. He gets his first opportunity when he accidentally eavesdrops on the sexual hanky-panky between store owner Mrs. Louder (Nan Martin (whose first name has suddenly and inexplicably changed from "Dottie" to "Fran") and fellow employee Larry (Ian Gomez). Also, the "New Drew" inaugurates a romance with sexy real-estate agent Nicki Fifer (Kate Walsh in her first series appearance). Meanwhile, Mimi (Kathy Kinney) continues to exert a sinister influence over the traumatized Mr. Wick (Craig Ferguson), who thinks that the tornado from last week's episode is still raging. This is the episode featuring the fantasy musical montage "Cleveland Rocks", performed by The Presidents of the United States of America. Cast as Larry's outraged wife Grace is Nia Vardalos, real-life spouse of actor Ian Gomez and future creator-star of the hit film My Big Fat Greek Wedding. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
