Early life

Wilson was born Margarita Ibrahimoff in Los Angeles, California.

Her father, a Bulgarian who worked at a racetrack, was born in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. Before immigrating to the US, he had lived in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.

Her mother, Dorothy, was born and raised in an ethnic Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 village (Sotire) in present-day Albania. Wilson's family changed their surname from "Ibrahimoff" to "Wilson," which was a name of a local street in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

.

Career

Wilson's career began with a guest appearance on The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...

, in a 1972 episode entitled "Greg's Triangle," which was followed by appearances on several shows during the 1970s and 1980s.

She has appeared in several movies, including Volunteers

Volunteers (film)

Volunteers is a 1985 comedy directed by Nicholas Meyer and starring Tom Hanks and John Candy.-Plot:Lawrence Bourne III is a spoiled rich kid with a large gambling debt in the 1960s. After his father, Lawrence Bourne Jr...

, Teen Witch

Teen Witch

Teen Witch is a 1989 fantasy teen comedy film starring Robyn Lively. It was originally pitched as a female version of the 1985 Teen Wolf, although it later was reworked and turned into a film of its own...

, The Bonfire of the Vanities

The Bonfire of the Vanities (film)

The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1990 American film adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Tom Wolfe. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow, Melanie Griffith as Maria Ruskin, and Kim Cattrall as Judy McCoy,...

, Barbarians at the Gate

Barbarians at the Gate (film)

Barbarians at the Gate is a television movie based upon the book by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, about the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco.The film was directed by Glenn Jordan and written by Larry Gelbart. It stars James Garner as F...

, Mixed Nuts

Mixed Nuts

Mixed Nuts is a motion picture comedy directed by Nora Ephron, based on the French comedy film, Le Père Noël est une ordure . Its cast includes Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, Rita Wilson, Anthony LaPaglia, Garry Shandling, Juliette Lewis and Adam Sandler...

, Sleepless in Seattle

Sleepless in Seattle

The film was originally to have been scored by John Barry, but when he was given a list of 20 songs he had to put in the film, he quit.#As Time Goes By - Jimmy Durante #A Kiss to Build a Dream on - Louis Armstrong #Stardust - Nat King Cole...

, Now and Then, That Thing You Do!

That Thing You Do!

That Thing You Do! is a 1996 comedy-drama musical film written and directed by Tom Hanks. Set in the summer of 1964, the movie tells the story of the quick rise and fall of a one-hit wonder rock band...

, Jingle All the Way

Jingle All the Way

Jingle All the Way is a 1996 American family comedy film directed by Brian Levant and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson, Jake Lloyd, James Belushi and Robert Conrad...

, Runaway Bride

Runaway Bride (1999 film)

Runaway Bride is a 1999 American romantic comedy film starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere and directed by Garry Marshall. The screenplay was written by Josann McGibbon, Audrey Wells and Sara Parriott.-Plot:...

, Invisible Child

Invisible Child

Invisible Child is a 1999 film starring Rita Wilson as a mother who imagines she has three children when she only has two. Fearing his wife may be institutionalized because of her mental illness, her husband goes along with this charade as though it is perfectly normal. The 10-year old daughter...

, The Story of Us

The Story of Us

The Story of Us is a 1999 American film directed by Rob Reiner, and starring Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer as a couple married for fifteen years....

, and Raise Your Voice

Raise Your Voice

Raise Your Voice is a 2004 American teen musical drama film directed by Sean McNamara-Plot:Terri Fletcher , a teenager with a passion for singing, has been accepted into a music program in Los Angeles to compete for a $10,000 scholarship shortly after her brother Paul 's tragic death in a car crash...

. She played Susan Borman, wife of astronaut Frank Borman

Frank Borman

Frank Frederick Borman, II is a retired NASA astronaut and engineer, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with fellow crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so...

, in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

Wilson has performed on Broadway, where she performed the role of Roxie Hart from June–August 2006 in the revival of Chicago

Chicago (musical)

Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...

.

She is often credited with being the driving force behind Nia Vardalos

Nia Vardalos

Antonia Eugenia "Nia" Vardalos is a Canadian-American actress, screenwriter, director, singer and producer. Her most notable work is the 2002 Academy Award–nominated film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.-Personal life:...

' movie deal for My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 Canadian and American romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. The film is centered on Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos , a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek upper middle class "White...

, which became the highest-grossing independent film of all time, and for which she served as a producer.

Wilson will have a music album coming out in February 2012.

Personal life

She has been married to actor Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...

 since April 1988, with whom she has had two stepchildren from a previous marriage to her husband and two sons, Chester, or "Chet" (who has a small part as a student in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and released a rap single in 2011), and Truman. She contributed to the Moffitt Cancer Center by donating "True Hearts" jewelry made of sterling silver and 14k gold. The proceeds will benefit several charities. Wilson credits good friend Rosie O'Donnell

Rosie O'Donnell

Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American stand-up comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family...

 as inspiration for her charitable work, particularly with cancer and children's charities. She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church

Greek Orthodox Church

The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...

.

In the director's cut of the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do!

That Thing You Do!

That Thing You Do! is a 1996 comedy-drama musical film written and directed by Tom Hanks. Set in the summer of 1964, the movie tells the story of the quick rise and fall of a one-hit wonder rock band...

, her brief appearance as a cocktail waitress named Marguerite has another scene, in which main character Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott

Tom Everett Scott

Thomas "Tom" Everett Scott is an American film, theatre and television actor. His film work includes a starring role as drummer Guy Patterson in the film That Thing You Do! .-Career:...

) drunkenly calls her Margarita, a reference to Wilson's real-life first name.

Filmography

Actress
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1966	Spinout Spinout Spinout is a 1966 musical film and comedy starring Elvis Presley as the lead singer of a band and part-time race car driver. The movie was #57 on the year end list of the top-grossing films of 1966.-Plot:...	Bit Girl (uncredited)
1979	The Day It Came to Earth	Debbie
1980	Cheech & Chong's Next Movie Cheech & Chong's Next Movie Cheech & Chong's Next Movie is the second feature-length film by Cheech and Chong, released in 1980. It was directed by Tommy Chong.-Plot:...	Actress
1985	Volunteers Volunteers (film) Volunteers is a 1985 comedy directed by Nicholas Meyer and starring Tom Hanks and John Candy.-Plot:Lawrence Bourne III is a spoiled rich kid with a large gambling debt in the 1960s. After his father, Lawrence Bourne Jr...	Beth Wexler
1989	Teen Witch Teen Witch Teen Witch is a 1989 fantasy teen comedy film starring Robyn Lively. It was originally pitched as a female version of the 1985 Teen Wolf, although it later was reworked and turned into a film of its own...	Dancer
1990	Sinners	Margaret
	The Bonfire of the Vanities The Bonfire of the Vanities (film) The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1990 American film adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Tom Wolfe. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow, Melanie Griffith as Maria Ruskin, and Kim Cattrall as Judy McCoy,...	P.R. Woman
1993	Sleepless in Seattle Sleepless in Seattle The film was originally to have been scored by John Barry, but when he was given a list of 20 songs he had to put in the film, he quit.#As Time Goes By - Jimmy Durante #A Kiss to Build a Dream on - Louis Armstrong #Stardust - Nat King Cole...	Suzy
1994	Mixed Nuts Mixed Nuts Mixed Nuts is a motion picture comedy directed by Nora Ephron, based on the French comedy film, Le Père Noël est une ordure . Its cast includes Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, Rita Wilson, Anthony LaPaglia, Garry Shandling, Juliette Lewis and Adam Sandler...	Catherine O'Shaughnessy
1995	Now and Then	Chrissy DeWitt Williams
1996	No Dogs Allowed
	That Thing You Do! That Thing You Do! That Thing You Do! is a 1996 comedy-drama musical film written and directed by Tom Hanks. Set in the summer of 1964, the movie tells the story of the quick rise and fall of a one-hit wonder rock band...	Marguerite
	Jingle All the Way Jingle All the Way Jingle All the Way is a 1996 American family comedy film directed by Brian Levant and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson, Jake Lloyd, James Belushi and Robert Conrad...	Liz Langston
1998	Psycho Psycho (1998 film) Psycho is a 1998 American horror film produced and directed by Gus Van Sant for Universal Pictures, a remake of the 1960 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock...	Caroline
1999	Runaway Bride Runaway Bride (1999 film) Runaway Bride is a 1999 American romantic comedy film starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere and directed by Garry Marshall. The screenplay was written by Josann McGibbon, Audrey Wells and Sara Parriott.-Plot:...	Ellie Graham
	Invisible Child Invisible Child Invisible Child is a 1999 film starring Rita Wilson as a mother who imagines she has three children when she only has two. Fearing his wife may be institutionalized because of her mental illness, her husband goes along with this charade as though it is perfectly normal. The 10-year old daughter...	Annie Beeman
	The Story of Us The Story of Us The Story of Us is a 1999 American film directed by Rob Reiner, and starring Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer as a couple married for fifteen years....	Rachel
2001	Perfume Perfume (2001 film) Perfume is a 2001 film about the fashion industry in New York City.-Plot:Prior to a major show, the people involved find themselves embroiled in their own personal battles....	Roberta	aka Dress to Kill
	The Glass House The Glass House (film) The Glass House is a 2001 film directed by Daniel Sackheim and written by Wesley Strick.-Plot:Sixteen-year-old Ruby and eleven-year-old Rhett lose their parents in a car accident...	Grace Avery-Baker	(uncredited)
2002	Auto Focus Auto Focus Auto Focus is a 2002 American biographical film directed by Paul Schrader that stars Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe. The screenplay by Michael Gerbosi is based on the book The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith....	Anne Crane
2004	Raise Your Voice Raise Your Voice Raise Your Voice is a 2004 American teen musical drama film directed by Sean McNamara-Plot:Terri Fletcher , a teenager with a passion for singing, has been accepted into a music program in Los Angeles to compete for a $10,000 scholarship shortly after her brother Paul 's tragic death in a car crash...	Francis Fletcher
2005	The Chumscrubber The Chumscrubber The Chumscrubber is a 2005 dark comedy film directed by Arie Posin and written by Posin and Zac Stanford, starring an ensemble cast. The film focuses on the lack of communication between teenagers and their parents, and the prevalence of prescription drugs in American society...	Terri Bratley
	Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D is a 2005 IMAX 3D documentary film about the first humans on the Moon, the twelve astronauts in the Apollo program.-Production:...	Beta Station Commander	(voice)
2006	Beautiful Ohio Beautiful Ohio (film) Beautiful Ohio is a 2006 American film, directed by Chad Lowe and starring William Hurt, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Julianna Margulies. The film, based on the short story by Ethan Canin, is a coming of age drama/comedy set in the 1970s.-Cast:...	Judith Messerman
2009	My Life in Ruins My Life in Ruins My Life in Ruins is a 2009 romantic comedy film set amongst the ruins of ancient Greece, starring Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Alexis Georgoulis, Rachel Dratch, Harland Williams and British comedy actor and impressionist Alistair McGowan...	Elinor
	Old Dogs Old Dogs (film) Old Dogs is a 2009 American ensemble comedy film directed by Wild Hogs Walt Becker and starring Robin Williams and John Travolta with an ensemble supporting cast played by Kelly Preston, Matt Dillon, Justin Long, Seth Green, Rita Wilson, Dax Shepard, and Bernie Mac...	Jenna
	It's Complicated It's Complicated (film) It's Complicated is a 2009 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Nancy Meyers, starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.-Plot:...	Trisha
2011	The Art of Getting By	Vivian Sargent
	Larry Crowne Larry Crowne Larry Crowne is a 2011 American romantic comedy film starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. The film was directed by Hanks, who co-wrote its screenplay with Nia Vardalos...	Betty

Producer
Year	Film	Role	Notes
2002	My Big Fat Greek Wedding My Big Fat Greek Wedding My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 Canadian and American romantic comedy film written by and starring Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. The film is centered on Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos , a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek upper middle class "White...	Producer	Producers Guild of America Visionary Award Producers Guild of America Awards 2002 The 14th PGA Golden Laurel Awards, given at the Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California, USA on 2 March 2003, honored the best film and television producers of 2002.-Film:*Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award:**Marty Richards - Chicago... Nominated — Producers Guild of America Award for Motion Picture Producer of the Year Producers Guild of America Awards 2002 The 14th PGA Golden Laurel Awards, given at the Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California, USA on 2 March 2003, honored the best film and television producers of 2002.-Film:*Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award:**Marty Richards - Chicago...
2003	My Big Fat Greek Life My Big Fat Greek Life My Big Fat Greek Life is a situation comedy series that ran on CBS in 2003. The series is a continuation on the 2002 movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding and was produced by HBO Television and Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions for Sony Pictures Television....	Executive producer	TV series
2004	Connie and Carla Connie and Carla Connie and Carla is a 2004 American comedy film directed by Michael Lembeck and starring Nia Vardalos, Toni Collette, and David Duchovny.The film was shot in Vancouver and featured a number of local drag queens.-Plot:...
2008	Mamma Mia! Mamma Mia! (film) Mamma Mia! is a 2008 musical/romantic comedy film adapted from the 1999 West End/2001 Broadway musical of the same name, based on the songs of successful pop group ABBA, with additional music composed by ABBA member Benny Andersson...
2009	My Life in Ruins My Life in Ruins My Life in Ruins is a 2009 romantic comedy film set amongst the ruins of ancient Greece, starring Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Alexis Georgoulis, Rachel Dratch, Harland Williams and British comedy actor and impressionist Alistair McGowan...

External links