Annie Novak

Played By Nia Vardalos

Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) plays Margaret’s no-nonsense campaign manager Annie Novak.

 

 

 

Academy Award® & Golden Globe® nominated actor/writer Nia Vardalos was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada.

 

Instant Mom, Vardalos’s memoir on adopting her daughter at the age of three, is a New York Times bestseller. Social workers estimate the information from the book has placed 1000 children in permanent homes. Additionally, Vardalos donates all proceeds to charities.

 

Directed by Gary Griffin (The Color Purple), Vardalos performed the role of Jenny in the musical Company and won Toronto’s Broadway Theater Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

 

Vardalos voices Angie Diaz in Disney XD’s animated series “Star vs the Forces of Evil.”

 

With her husband Ian Gomez, Vardalos hosts ABC’s “The Great Holiday Baking Show,” and guest-stars on ABC’s “The Catch.”

 

Recently, Vardalos wrote, produced and reprised the lead role of Toula in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

 

At The Public Theater, in December 2016, directed by Thomas Kail (Hamilton), Vardalos performed in a play she adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling book, Tiny Beautiful Things.

 

Vardalos attended Toronto’s Ryerson Theater School, and went on to perform onstage in Shakespeare and many musicals, later taking a box office job at The Second City. One fateful night, when the lead actress fell ill, Vardalos convinced producers she knew the show and to let her fill in. The next day she was hired and went on to write/perform in twelve Second City revues in Toronto and Chicago, winning Chicago’s Jefferson Award for Best Actress.

 

Her feature films include the # 1 romantic comedy of all time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award® for best Screenplay, a Golden Globe® Award for Best Actress, winning the Independent Spirit Award and People’s Choice award. She also wrote and starred in Connie and Carla, acted in My Life in Ruins, and For a Good Time, Call; co-wrote Larry Crowne with Tom Hanks, directed her screenplay, I Hate Valentine’s Day, and appeared on TV shows such as “Jane the Virgin”; “Law & Order: SVU”; “Grey’s Anatomy”; “Cougar Town”; “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and hosted “Saturday Night Live”.

 

Presently, Vardalos mentors six writers, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, their eleven-year-old daughter, and many pets.