Nia Vardalos on How She Overcame Hollywood Discrimination to Create Her Big Fat Greek Success

Nia Vardalos is a Canadian-born actress, writer, and producer of Greek descent who rose to fame with her 2002 film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which she wrote and starred in. The film became a huge success, grossing over $368 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. It also earned Vardalos an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay and spawned a sequel, a TV series, and a musical.

But before she achieved her big fat Greek success, Vardalos faced discrimination and rejection from Hollywood agents because of her Greek heritage and appearance. She revealed that she was told she was not pretty enough to be a star, not fat enough to be a character actor, and not ethnic enough to play a maid.

“I couldn’t find a job in Hollywood because I was Greek,” Vardalos said in an interview with the Greek City Times. “I was told by an agent that I wasn’t pretty enough to be a leading lady, I wasn’t fat enough to be a character actor, and I wasn’t ethnic enough to play a maid.”

Vardalos refused to give up on her dream and wrote her own script based on her experiences with her Greek family and husband, Ian Gomez, whom she met at The Second City comedy…