My Big Fat Greek Wedding Filming Locations in Toronto, Canada!

This is a definitive list of the very best My Big Fat Greek Wedding filming locations in Toronto.

One of my favourite childhood films was My Big Fat Greek Wedding because I loved the film’s take on Greek-American culture, close family, crazy family members, repetitive jokes and overall love story.

I was surprised to learn that it wasn’t filmed in Chicago like the setting but actually used Toronto in Canada so when I lived in Canada, I knew I had to check out the city’s Greektown. Read on for all the locations I found and how you can visit them too.

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Contents (jump to)

About My Big Fat Greek Wedding

The movie franchise was based on a one-woman play by Nia Vardalos (who plays the films’ protagonist Toula Portokalos) about growing up in a Greek Orthodox family living in Winnipeg, Canada and falling in love with a non-Greek.

There were three movies in total:

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) set in Chicago, filmed in Toronto.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) set in Chicago, filmed in Toronto.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023) set in Chicago and Greece, filmed in Greece.

The films are a celebration of Greek culture, family, love and going for what you believe in. I love the story, characters, culture and jokes as it slightly reminds me of my big family.

Why Toronto and Not Chicago?

Image of Greek flag flying in Greektown area of Toronto Canada - where My Big Fat Greek Wedding was filmed

Toronto is sometimes referred to as Hollywood North because there are lots of movies and TV shows that use the Canadian city as stand ins for American cities. Films like Mean Girls, IT and Hairspray and TV shows like Schitt’s Creek, Suits and Gilmore Girls.

Plus, the writer and protagonist is Canadian and grew up in a Greek area of Winnipeg.

Greek areas: West Loop in Chicago, Danforth in Toronto.

How to Use This Location Post

In this post you’ll find all the iconic locations used for the filming of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I’ll explain where the location is, the scene that it was used for and My Big Fat Greek Wedding quotes to finish. The locations are listed in order that they appear in the movies.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding Filming Locations

1) The Portokalos Houses

Image is screenshot of the Portokalos House used for My Big Fat Greek Wedding in Toronto. Image courtesy of Universal Pictures — Image Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Image is screenshot of the Portokalos House with the family partying outside used for My Big Fat Greek Wedding in Toronto. Image courtesy of Universal Pictures — Image Courtesy of Universal Pictures

The Portokalos house is as much a character as the family, it is huge and decorated in Greek style (even the mailbox is blue and white).

Filming scouts chose this house as it was already reminiscent of Greek but the crew enhanced it.

Throughout the movies we see that the entire family end up living on the same street.

Some of the best My Big Fat Greek Wedding scenes happen here including a big party for Toula and Ian, when Gus buys Toula and Ian a house next door and Maria and Gus’s wedding reception in the second film.

If you do visit, remember that this is someone’s real life home and to always be respectful of the area.

Address: 73 Glenwood Crescent, East York, ON M4B 1J8

‘Our house, however, was modelled after the Parthenon complete with Corinthian columns and guarded by statues of the Gods’

2) Rogers Communication Centre

Exterior of Rogers Communication Centre in Toronto that was used as a My Big Fat Greek Wedding location where Toula went to a computer class

Truman College is where Toula takes computer lessons and we see her coming back and forth from this exact entrance in the film.

Address: 80 Gould St, Toronto, ON M5B 2R1, Canada

‘The man is the head, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head any way she wants’

3) Danforth Avenue

Image of lamppost, street sign and traffic lights on Danforth Avenue. The street sign is in English and Greek and there is 'Greektown' written on a blue-painted part of the post

Image of Greek mosaic pattern painted in blue and white on the road of Danforth Avenue in Greektown Toronto. You can also see the Canadian and Greek flags flying on a building in the background

They are regularly seen walking down this street either toward the restaurant or the travel agent.

Danforth Avenue is located in Toronto’s Greektown. On this street you’ll find lots of Greek flags, patterns on the roads and streets, Greek restaurants, shops, churches, Greek statues and a huge ‘Welcome to Greektown’ sign.

‘Put some Windex on it’

4) Mount Olympus Travel Agency

Image of The Blue Shoe Box shop that was used for the travel agent in My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Aunt Voula owns and Toula works in. This is the place where Ian and Toula lock eyes. At the time of filming it was a travel agency as seen in the movie but now it’s a shoe shop.

Located in Danforth, they used this shop and the street to film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Address: 439 Danforth Avenue, Toronto, ON M4K 1P1

‘There are two types of people: Greeks and everybody else who wish they was Greek’

Read Next: 3 Days Itinerary in Toronto

5) My Big Fat Greek Restaurant Locations

Exterior image of Mezzini on Danforth Avenue - My Big Fat Greek Wedding restaurant locations

Exterior image of Pappas Grill on Danforth Avenue - My Big Fat Greek Wedding restaurant locations

All restaurants are located on Danforth Avenue in Toronto’s Greektown.

Next door to the travel agency is (now) Mezzini where the cast ate during filming.

Across the road you can see Mezes that was seen as ‘Pappas Grill’ when Toula and Ian spot each other from inside the travel agency.

Either one could have been the inspiration for Dancing Zorbas, the My Big Fat Greek Wedding restaurant, owned by the Portokalos family.

It’s rumoured that throughout filming lots of Greek restaurants in the area would send over free food to the cast and crew members. True to the warm hospitality stereotype.

‘He don’t eat no meat [..] that’s okay I make Lamb’ (this is said by My Big Fat Greek Wedding Aunt Voula about Ian being a vegetarian)

Ian’s Apartment

This apartment block in Toronto was used for the exterior shots of Ian’s Apartment in the first movie.

Address: 5 Lonsdale Road, Toronto, ON M4V 1W4

This is someone’s real life home and to always be respectful of the area.

‘Give me a word, any word, and I will show you how the root of that word is Greek’ (this is a favourite My Big Fat Greek Wedding quote)

Fun Fact: John Corbett who plays Ian also plays Aidan in Sex and the City!

Jarvis Collegiate

Jarvis Collegiate is a My Big Fat Greek Wedding filming location for the school where Ian teaches and later becomes the headteacher.

We see this when Toula visits him and asks him to elope after the stress of her family’s unhappiness. Which is when Ian tells her he came alive when he met her and he’s willing to convert to her religion (tears).

We also see the college when Ian asks Mike to be his best man. Fun fact, Mike is played by Nia Vardalos’ husband.

Address: 495 Jarvis St, Toronto, ON M4Y 2G8

‘It’s your lucky day to be baptised in the Greek Orthodox church, Nikki is going to be your Godmother’

Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church

This church was used for the exterior shots for where Toula and Ian get married.

Address: 23 Henry St, Toronto, ON M5T 1W9, Canada

Where to Stay: I stayed in Samesun Hostel in Kensington, very close to the church where they filmed My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

St. Nicholas Ukrainian Church

The interior of this church was used to film My Big Fat Greek Wedding for Ian and Toula’s wedding.

Address: 4 Bellwoods Ave, Toronto, ON M6J 2P4, Canada

‘Telephone, telegram, tell a Greek’

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 Locations

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 was set years later when Toula and Ian’s daughter, Paris, is 17 and is deciding whether to stay in Chicago (where her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles all live on one street) or move elsewhere in the country. The main storyline, however, is that Gus and Maria discover they are not legally married and so ensues another Greek wedding.

‘I heard I come from a long line of strong women’ ‘you do’

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 filming locations used the same as those in the first movie but also included:

Mercatto (Toula and Ian go on a date)
St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church on Bond Street where the family go to church and meet Anna and George Mikos.
Serano Bakery on Pape Avenue (for some Greek baklava)
Crema Coffee Co (now closed)
Here’s a video from Greek Gateway from the My Big Fat Greek Wedding house before they started filming the second movie.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 Locations

More years have passed for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 and this time following the passing of patriarch Gus, the Portokalos family head to Gus’s home in Greece for a village reunion.

Toronto was once again used as the home of My Big Fat Greek Wedding location and at the start we see Toula and Ian driving through the city and other neighbourhoods are shown. Chicago O’Hare was recreated for the airport scene.

The rest of the third movie was filmed entirely in Greece, mainly in Athens for the home interior scenes and the island of Corfu for Gus’s home village of Varipatades. Other parts of Greece were used for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 locations like Santorini, Paros and Crete.

Opa! Some Big Fat Greek locations, there you go.

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Why would you leave My Big Fat Greek Wedding film locations post unpinned?