My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 romantic comedy film written by Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick . It was the fifth highest grossing movie of 2002 in the USA, behind Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, with $241,438,208. It is the highest-grossing film to never have been Number 1 on the weekly North American box-office charts.

It tells the love story between an American woman of Greek descent (Nia Vardalos, who also wrote the script) and a non-Greek American (played by John Corbett). It also examines the protagonist's troubled love/hate relationship with her cultural heritage and value system.

Parts were filmed in Chicago, Illinois, USA, and at Ryerson Polytechnic University and other locations in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. After a February 2002 premier, it was initially released in the USA April 19, 2002. That summer it opened in Iceland, Israel, Greece, and Canada. The following fall and winter it opened in Turkey, UK, New Zealand, Argentina, Australia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Norway, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Taiwan, the Philippines, Egypt, Peru, Sweden, Mexico, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Switzerland (German speaking region), France, Poland, Kuwait, Estonia, and Lithuania. It was finally released in South Korea in March 2003, and Japan in July 2003.

Martin Grove writes,

"Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, who found 'Wedding' when it was a one-woman Nia Vardalos play in L.A. and believed in it so much that they got it made as a movie." [1]

The movie inspired the brief 2003 TV series My Big Fat Greek Life, with most of the major characters played by the same actors, with the exception of Steven Eckholdt replacing John Corbett as the husband. Corbett had already signed on to the TV series Lucky. He was scheduled to appear as the best friend of his replacement's character, but the show was cancelled before he appeared.

Main cast

• Nia Vardalos as Toula Portokalos
• John Corbett as Ian Miller
• Michael Constantine as Gus Portokalos
• Lainie Kazan as Maria Portokalos
• Andrea Martin as Aunt Voula
• Louis Mandylor as Nick Portokalos
• Gia Carides as Cousin Nikki
• Jayne Eastwood as Mrs. White

External link