Nia Vardalos

Antonia Eugenia "Nia" Vardalos is a Canadian-American actress, screenwriter, director, and producer. Her most notable work was My Big Fat Greek Wedding which was nominated in 2002 for an Academy Award. The wildly succesful independent film was loosely based on her own personal when her husband Ian Gomez, converted to the Greek Orthodox religion to marry her.
Vardalos started out as an actress, working small roles on some popular television shows such as The Drew Carey Show, but went on to write her own movies and a spin off on television. In addition to My Big Fat Greek Wedding Vardalos has also written Connie and Carla, a musical about two women pretending to be drag queens,and My Life in Ruins, about a misguided tour-guide travelling around Greece.
As a women, Vardalos and her view on family, religion and love and extremely different from a mans perspective. Instead of writing about dramatic things, Vardalos prefers to write about the things shes experiences best in her own life, about large families and looking for love while adding a little bit of dramatic flair to her movies. "There’s a big wide shot when Connie and Carla are singing and my whole family is right across the audience, of course, mugging for the camera. That’s where it comes from. I’m so lucky. They do actually exist, these twenty-seven first cousins who will call me up and say, “Don’t wear your hair like that. You’re not a rock star. Get real.” By writing from experience Vardalos is able to escape the 'cheesy'feeling most romantic comedies are attributed. Women, real women are able to see themselves in Vardalos characters who are not extremely beautiful nor are they .Theyre real women which is incredibly appealing."My favorite thing in the world is when people come up to me on the street and say “I am you. I am Israeli and I married a man from Scotland.” I love hearing everyone’s story. Everybody feels like every woman and every man. That’s why we all relate to Oprah. I think so. I do. I am a black woman."

Vardalos's movies have not all been well received however. After her hit movie,My Big Fat Greek Wedding,her movies were critically panned for being 'too simialer' to her first major hit. Her weight has also drummed up criticism.Pressured to lose weight because of the medias comments,Vardalos lost 40lbs but which then out shined all her accomplishments."Just 40 pounds of fat now gone from my body, but wow, it's pretty much all I get asked about. In the last year, I got to star in a movie, wrote and directed my next one, and adopted a three year old from American Foster Care. But guess what I'm asked- how did I lose the weight?"

"Socially, the issue of men's weight is simply not a big deal. Let's face it: Russell Crowe is fat and no one ever talks about it. Alec Baldwin just orders his suits a size bigger and we continue to swoon."

Wikipedia article on Vardalos

Nia Vardalos on 'Connie and Carla'

Nia Vardalos Interview with Us Weekly