My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 romantic comedy film directed by Joel Zwick and written by Nia Vardalos.

The film stars Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin, and Joey Fatone.

It follows a young Greek-American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek and struggles to get her family to accept him while she comes to terms with her heritage and cultural identity.

One day, a teacher named Ian Miller patronizes Dancing Zorba's, and Toula develops a crush on him.

As the weeks pass, Toula gains more confidence and changes her image, switching her thick-framed glasses for contact lenses, styling her hair, and wearing makeup and brighter clothes that show her figure.

Knowing her family would disapprove of her dating a non-Greek, Toula lies about taking a pottery class to see Ian.

Maria tells Gus that he must respect Toula's decision, but he remains upset because Ian is not a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding started as a one-woman 45-minute monologue workshop, written by, and starring Vardalos, first developed in the HBO Workshop,[5] then tested in Chicago, Toronto and Europe,[5] later performed at the Hudson Backstage[6] Theatre in Los Angeles in August[7] 1997.

[7] The one-woman 45-minute monologue workshop was based on Vardalos's own family in Winnipeg in Canada and on her experience marrying a non-Greek man (actor Ian Gomez).

[8] The one-woman 45-minute monologue workshop was popular and was sold out for much of its run, in part due to Vardalos's marketing it across Greek Orthodox churches in the area.

[8] Two months after the monologue's initial run ended, Hanks's production company, Playtone, contacted Vardalos about producing a film based on her vision for it; they also agreed to remount it, as a one-woman play, in January 1998,[7] at the Globe Playhouse,[10] West Hollywood, for a three-night-a-week run.

[7][5] In 2000, while in Toronto doing pre-production for the film, Vardalos and Playtone producer Gary Goetzman overheard actor John Corbett (who was in town shooting the film Serendipity) at a bar, telling a friend of his about having read the script for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and being upset that he couldn't make the auditions.

The website's consensus reads: "Though it sometimes feels like a television sitcom, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is good-hearted, lovable, and delightfully eccentric, with a sharp script and lead performance from Nia Vardalos.

"[20] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

The cast (with the exception of Vardalos, who had a separate deal), as well as Hanks' production company, Playtone, later sued the studio for their part of the profits.

[24] The film 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 Corbett as the husband.

The show received poor reviews from critics noting the random character entrances and serious plot "adjustments" that did not match the film.

The seven episodes from the series are available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, whose TV studio division produced the show.

[27][28] The first trailer for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 was aired on NBC's The Today Show on November 11, 2015[29] and it was released on March 25, 2016,[30][31] to negative critical reception and modest box office success.

[35] On April 8, 2021, it was announced that My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 was in development as an independent film written by Vardalos, who would also reprise her role as Toula.

[38] On May 15, 2022, it was announced that filming would take place throughout Greece that summer, with large portions being shot on Corfu from July 5 to August 3.