My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an Academy Award nominated 2002 romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. It was the fifth highest grossing movie of 2002 in the USA, with USD$241,438,208. It is the highest-grossing film to never have been number 1 on the weekly North American box-office charts. In 2003, it was nominated for an Academy Award, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

The movie is centered on Toula, a Greek-American woman (Nia Vardalos, who also wrote the script), who falls in love with a non-Greek American, Ian Miller (played by John Corbett). The movie also examines the protagonist's relationship with her family, with their cultural heritage and value system, which is sometimes rocky but ends with mutual appreciation.

Toula is going through an early midlife crisis. At thirty, she is the only woman in her family who has failed in Greek terms: she has not "married a Greek boy, made Greek babies, and fed everyone". Because of these "failures", Toula is stuck running the family business, a restaurant, "Dancing Zorba's". In contrast to her 'perfect' sister, Toula is a frumpy, cynical character who can barely articulate her desires and merely wishes for happiness. Now thirty, she fears she's doomed to be stuck with her life as it is.

At the restaurant, she encounters Ian Miller, a school teacher. His presence reminds her of the nearby city college, which she's considered for some time, secretly looking at their catalogs. With mom Maria's help, she talks Gus into letting her sign up for computer classes, which she says she can use to help improve the business. Now caring more about her appearance, she abandons her unflattering eyeglasses for contact lenses and begins to wear makeup and attractive dresses. A bulletin at the school announces a seminar for computer systems related to travel agencies. Toula's Aunt Voula runs such an agency, and Toula decides to change jobs to work for her aunt. With her aunt and mother, she engages in an intricate scheme to convince her father that it was his idea to allow her to work for the travel agency so that he will allow Toula to leave the restaurant business.

# Nia Vardalos as Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos/Toula Miller
# John Corbett as Ian Miller
# Michael Constantine as Kostas "Gus" Portokalos
# Lainie Kazan as Maria Portokalos
# Andrea Martin as Aunt Voula
# Louis Mandylor as Nick Portokalos
# Gia Carides as Cousin Nikki
# Joey Fatone as Cousin Angelo
# Bruce Gray as Rodney Miller