Detailed Biography

Antonia Eugenia "Nia" Vardalos is a Greek-Canadian-American actress, screenwriter, director and producer.

Biography

Personal life

Vardalos was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She is the daughter of Greek Canadian parents Doreen, a bookkeeper and homemaker, and Constantine "Gus" Vardalos, a land developer. She attended Shaftesbury High School and Ryerson University. Vardalos married actor Ian Gomez on September 5, 1993 . They have recently adopted a daughter, and she has written a post with advice about the adoption process at The Huffington Post. She became a dual citizen of the U.S. in 1999.

Career

Vardalos had done many different works but gained almost overnight success with her movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The success of the movie led to an unsuccessful television series on CBS, called My Big Fat Greek Life. Except for John Corbett, this series featured the original movie cast. In 2004 she followed it up with Connie and Carla, which co-starred Toni Collette. Vardalos and her husband have appeared together in both of those films, as well as Meet Prince Charming . Vardalos also guest starred on The Drew Carey Show in 1997, where Gomez was a frequent guest star. Her next work was the movie My Life in Ruins, which arrived in theaters in 2009.

Vardalos is among many celebrities helping to produce The 1 Second Film art project.

Vardalos was featured in The Dialogue interview series. In this 90 minute interview with producer Mike DeLuca, Vardalos talks about how her experiences in The Second City comedy troupe helped her as an actress and a screenwriter, and how the unofficial "tell-the-Greek" word-of-mouth program had a hand in catapulting her movie to such great heights.