Actor/Producer, Rita Wilson first donned her producers cap for the record breaking box-office hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Wilson was the driving force behind bringing Nia Vardalos’ semi-autobiographical story to the screen with Vardalos as the lead. Rita was honored with the Visionary Award from the Producer’s Guild of America, and the film won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Comedy, as well as Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.
Rita is the producer of the 2008 Universal Studios film version of the hit ABBA stage musical Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. Seeing the play in London soon after it opened, and loving the energy of ABBA’s music, Rita felt immediately that it could be a wonderful movie. She got the ball rolling on the film before the play made it to audiences outside of the U.K.
As an actor, Rita has starred in Homework, Old Dogs with John Travolta and Robin Williams, and starred in Beautiful, Ohio with William Hurt. Some of her other film credits include The Chumbscrubber, with Ralph Fiennes, Raise Your Voice with Hilary Duff, Auto Focus with Greg Kinnear, The Story of Us with Michelle Pfeiffer and Bruce Willis, Runaway Bride with Richard Gere, Gus Van Sant’s Psycho, Nora Ephron’s Mixed Nuts with Steve Martin, and Sleepless in Seattle in which she captured the hearts of film audiences everywhere with her now classic, crying scene.
On stage, Rita recently starred in the world premiere of Lisa Loomer’s DISTRACTED, directed by Leonard Foglia at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She also starred in the Pulitzer Prize winning play DINNER WITH FRIENDS in Los Angeles and Boston, directed by Dan Sullivan. In 2006, she made a personal dream come true and made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in CHICAGO, THE MUSICAL. Rita works with the Shakespeare Festival/LA, a charity that provides free Shakespeare to the citizens of Los Angeles, as well providing educational programs for youths in the community.
On television, She has appeared this season in The Good Wife, has foiled Larry David in “The Doll” episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, has been girlfriend and mother to Kelsey Grammar’s “Frasier”, and co-starred as Susan Borman in HBO’s Emmy award winning miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon”. Rita has “The Brady Bunch” to thank for her first professional acting job.
In 2007 Rita made her directorial debut for Glamour Magazine’s Reel Moments. The Trap, starring Jeanne Tripplehorn and Channing Tatum also includes the song “Lessons Learned” by Grammy award winning songwriter Diane Warren, and is performed by Rita.
Rita has been a contributing editor to Harper’s Bazaar since 2006 and has also written for Oprah Magazine, as well as appearing on The Oprah Show Fabulous at Every Age, talking about style and fashion. She is Editor at Large of Huff/Post50, a new vertical on the Huffington Post related to Baby Boomers. Rita is currently writing her first screenplay Terms Of Embarrassment for Fox 2000.
