Nia Vardalos took her one-woman play about the pitfalls of interracial marriage and turned it into her noteworthy debut screenplay for My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The film was a tremendous hit, becoming the highest-grossing independent feature and made Vardalos an overnight success, earning her nominations for Best Original Screenplay WGA and Academy Awards®. The Canada native also wrote and starred in the 2004 comedy Connie and Carla and is currently penning an adaptation to the Laura Zigman novel Piece of Work. In this candid and whimsical interview, she talks about how her experiences in the Second City comedy troupe helped her as an actress and a screenwriter, and how the unofficial âtell-the-Greekâ word-of-mouth program had a hand in catapulting her movie to such great heights.
