5 things you never knew about my big fat greek wedding

She wrote the screenplay, performed it as a one-woman show and Tom Hanks picked it up.

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. In Chicago , year-old Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos is a member of a large, loud, overbearing Greek family. Her father, Gus, wants her to get married and have children as soon as possible.

Toula lives with her parents and works in her family's restaurant, "Dancing Zorba's", but longs to gain independence from her family. That evening, Toula tells her parents that she wants to take a class at the local college to learn about computers, but Gus becomes emotional, believing Toula intends to leave him. Toula's mother, Maria, comforts Toula and convinces Gus to agree to Toula's idea.

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. After seeing a flyer for a class about computers and tourism, Toula suggests to her aunt Voula that she could take the class and use the information from the class to work part-time in Voula's travel agency.

Her on-screen husband got the part by walking into a hotel bar.

Voula agrees, and she and Maria covertly convince Gus to agree as well. While Toula is working in the travel agency, Ian notices her, strikes up a conversation with her, and asks her to date him. On their date, Toula confesses to Ian that her family owns Dancing Zorba's, and he suddenly recognizes her; contrary to Toula's fear that he would lose interest in her, Ian reaffirms his fondness for her.

They continue dating and fall in love. Knowing her family would disapprove of her dating a non-Greek, Toula lies about taking a pottery class to see Ian. However, Toula's lie is exposed when a family friend sees them kissing in a parking lot. Gus is furious that Ian did not ask his permission to date Toula, even though they are grown adults.

Gus forbids them from seeing each other because Ian is not Greek, but they continue dating anyway.