49 Fun Facts About My Big Fat Greek Wedding

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which household product does Gus believe can cure almost any ailment?

Windex. Gus sprays it on everything from a rash to a swollen toe, and the gag pays off on the wedding day, when Ian admits he used it to clear a pimple.

In which city is My Big Fat Greek Wedding set?

Chicago. Much of what is on screen is a stand-in: the film was largely shot in Toronto, which is where the Portokalos family house really stands.

What is the name of the Portokalos family restaurant?

Dancing Zorba's. Ian later suggests it for a date as a great Greek place he knows, with no idea that her family owns it or that she once served him there.

Gus has long told Toula she is starting to look what?

Old. He has said it since she was 15, because to him a nice Greek girl has three jobs in life: marry a Greek boy, make Greek babies and feed everyone until she dies.

What is Toula's full first name?

Fotoula. Growing up she longed to blend in: she remembers herself as a swarthy six-year-old with sideburns among the delicate blonde girls at school.

What is Ian Miller's job?

High school teacher. By the 2016 sequel he has risen to principal, at the very school where his teenage daughter is trying to escape her family's attention.

What does Toula tell her parents she wants to study at college?

Computers. Gus weeps that she wants to leave him and argues she is already smart enough for a girl, at which point Maria takes over the fight and wins it.

After her makeover, Toula goes to work at which of Aunt Voula's businesses?

The travel agency. Her mother and aunt stage the conversation so that Gus proposes the move himself and goes away believing it was all his idea.

What does Toula fear Ian will remember her as from the restaurant?

'Frump girl'. Ian's answer is that he doesn't remember Frump Girl at all: the person he remembers from that day at the restaurant is simply her.

What class does Toula pretend to be taking as a cover for seeing Ian?

Pottery. Gus approves at once, since the Greeks invented pottery, but the cover is blown when a family friend spots the couple kissing in a car park.

What does Ian agree to do to win over Toula's family?

Be baptised into the Greek church. Toula is sure he will decide she is not worth it, but he comes out of the ceremony covered in oil and announces, 'I'm Greek now.'

What mistake appears on the wedding invitations?

Ian's mother's name is misspelled. Harriet is printed as 'Harry', and the relative who ordered the invitations reasons that she never noticed, so the Millers won't either.

What gift do Gus and Maria reveal at the wedding reception?

A house for Toula and Ian. The catch only becomes clear in the epilogue: the generous gift stands right next door to her parents' own home.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding ends with Toula and Ian walking their daughter to what?

Her first day of Greek school. She would rather go to Brownies, just as Toula once wished, so her mother promises her the one freedom she fought for: to marry whoever she wants.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was shot in Toronto, but Nia Vardalos based it on her own family in which Canadian city?

Winnipeg. She built the show by asking friends which of her family stories were the funniest, then strung them around her own wedding of the year before.

Which actress of Greek heritage saw the stage show in Los Angeles and went on to produce My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

Rita Wilson. She told Vardalos the show nailed what it is like to grow up Greek, lent her name to a bigger staging and then helped get the film made.

Executives who wanted to buy Nia Vardalos's stage show planned to give her role to which actress?

Marisa Tomei. Vardalos pointed out that Tomei is Italian rather than Greek, turned the offer down and set about adapting the show herself so that she could keep the part.

When Aunt Voula hears that Ian is a vegetarian, what does she offer to cook him instead?

Lamb. The news that he eats no meat stops the whole party dead, until she waves the problem away: that's okay, she will make lamb.

Challenged by a schoolgirl, Gus 'proves' that which Japanese word really comes from Greek?

Kimono. He derives it from the Greek word for winter, on the grounds that a robe is what you put on to keep warm when it is cold.

What was My Big Fat Greek Wedding's production budget?

$5 million. On that budget it sold about $370 million of cinema tickets around the world, which makes it one of the most profitable films ever released.

What do Ian's parents bring to the Portokalos party that baffles Maria?

A Bundt cake. Maria puzzles over the word, thanks her guests warmly, then confides in alarm that there's a hole in this cake.

What was unusual about My Big Fat Greek Wedding's $241 million US box-office run?

It never reached number one. No film had earned so much in America without once topping the weekly chart, a record it kept until the 2016 cartoon Sing overtook it.

Aunt Voula tells Ian's startled parents that a lump she had removed turned out to contain what?

Her twin. She caps the story by reporting that the doctor found teeth and a spinal cord inside, then cheerfully raises a glass to her horrified new in-laws.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding received its only Academy Award nomination in which category?

Best Original Screenplay. Executives who wanted the story had told Nia Vardalos she had never written a screenplay, so she taught herself by poring over old film scripts.

Joel Zwick spent decades directing what before My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

Sitcoms. He came from Laverne & Shirley, Perfect Strangers and Full House, and the critics' consensus on Rotten Tomatoes is that his film sometimes feels like a television sitcom.

Which member of NSYNC appears in My Big Fat Greek Wedding as cousin Angelo?

Joey Fatone. He has come back as Angelo for the TV spin-off and both sequels, and the second film reveals that the character's business partner is also his boyfriend.

Michael Constantine, who plays Gus, won an Emmy in 1970 for playing a principal on which series?

Room 222. Constantine's own given name was Gus: the son of Greek immigrants spent five seasons as that school's weary principal, then found late fame playing his namesake.

Andrea Martin, who plays Aunt Voula, is a two-time Tony winner best known for which sketch series?

SCTV. She played Edith Prickley, the leopard-print boss of its fictional TV station, and wrote as well as performed: her two Emmys from the show are for its scripts.

John Corbett first made his name as DJ Chris Stevens on which 1990s series?

Northern Exposure. By the time he played Ian he was also Carrie's boyfriend Aidan on Sex and the City, a show he admits he had never watched before he was offered the part.

Nia Vardalos honed her comedy at which improv troupe, the training ground of many Saturday Night Live stars?

The Second City. By her own account she was working in its box office when a performer called in sick; she said she knew the show, went on that night and was hired the next day.

What became of TV spin-off My Big Fat Greek Life?

Axed within weeks. Its 2003 premiere drew 22.9 million viewers, but the audience fell by more than a quarter in the second week and CBS cancelled it after seven episodes.

Maria tells Toula that the man may be the head of the house, but the woman is the what?

The neck. And the neck, she adds, can turn the head any way it wants; Nia Vardalos took the line from her own mother, who suggested it for the film.

In 2007 My Big Fat Greek Wedding's star and producers sued the company that financed it over what?

Their share of the profits. The film had taken about $370 million in cinemas, yet an accounting statement filed in an earlier lawsuit claimed it had actually lost $20 million.

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Gus and Maria were never legally married because their priest failed to do what?

Sign the certificate. The village priest, it turns out, had never finished the seminary, and after fifty years Maria refuses to marry Gus again until he proposes properly.

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Gus becomes convinced he is descended from which historical figure?

Alexander the Great. To prove it he labours over an ancestry website, typing in every relative he can remember, until his daughter quietly forges the reply he longs for.

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Paris is accepted to which two universities?

Northwestern and NYU. One would keep her close to the family and the other far away; she first picks the nearer to please her mother, then goes to New York after all.

Which Greek-American TV star joins My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 as a local news anchor named George?

John Stamos. Proud of his roots, he once had his Full House character's surname changed from Cochran to Katsopolis; here he plays a newsman the family recognises on sight.

In his wedding speech, Gus says the names Miller and Portokalos come from the Greek for which two things?

Apple and orange. From this he draws the moral of the whole film: the two families may be different but in the end, as he puts it, they are all fruit.

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, the family travels to Greece to deliver what to Gus's childhood friends?

His journal. Gus wanted his three oldest friends to have it, but Toula's brother has quietly packed something else: their father's ashes, to scatter under the oldest tree in the village.

Much of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 was shot on which Greek island?

Corfu. The first two films were shot in North America, so only with the third did the series go to Greece itself, starting in Athens before a month on the island.

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, the villager Peter turns out to be who?

Gus's secret son. His mother was Gus's sweetheart before he left for America and never told him; Toula ends the film by taking her newly found brother home.

Toula says her Aunt Voula would win a gold medal if what were an Olympic sport?

Nagging. Voula proves the point at once, scolding her husband for not waiting for her and swatting away his apology with 'Don't sorry me.'

Who plays Toula's mother, Maria, in My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

Lainie Kazan. The Brooklyn-born singer was once Barbra Streisand's understudy in Funny Girl, and went on in the lead for a day when the star lost her voice.

What Greek word does Gus use for Ian on learning that Toula has a non-Greek boyfriend?

Xeno. To Gus it covers anyone who is not Greek, and he wails that his daughter has brought home a xeno with long hair on top of his head.

Nia Vardalos based the story on her own marriage to which actor, who plays the groom's best friend Mike?

Ian Gomez. He played Mike in the first two films, but the real couple divorced in 2018 after 25 years, and the third film was the first made without him.

John Corbett was in Toronto shooting which film when he was overheard praising the My Big Fat Greek Wedding script?

Serendipity. Fittingly, chance did the casting: Vardalos and her producer heard him at the bar regretting that he had missed the audition, and offered him the part on the spot.

When Gus introduces his huge family to Ian's parents, which name keeps recurring among the cousins?

Nick. Each of his three brothers has children called Anita, Diane and Nick, and he rounds off the roll-call with a string of further Nicks and one Nikki.

Inspired by his sister's example, what does Toula's brother decide he wants to become?

An artist. He has already drawn a new menu for the restaurant, and when he announces he is going to be a painter he is told he can start with the fence.

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding, what does Toula's grandmother still sleep with under her pillow?

A knife. The family keeps telling her the war is over, but she is taking no chances, and the children are warned that she also has a very mean punch.