Nia Vardalos Goes Red Carpet Official with Boyfriend of Two Years: I’m ‘Still Giddy’ (Exclusive)

Spiros Katsagans, who met Nia Vardalos in Greece, appeared hand in hand with the ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ filmmaker-star

Nia Vardalos and her boyfriend are now, in her words, “red carpet official.”

Spiros Katsagans appeared hand in hand with the My Big Fat Greek Wedding star, first at the Dec. 3 Academy Museum Gala then at The Hollywood Reporter's Women In Entertainment Gala Dec. 7.

“It is strange for me that we've been together almost two years,” Vardalos, 61, revealed to PEOPLE on the red carpet of the Women in Entertainment Gala.

“So we figured it's time,” she said. “We just decided in the last week to go red carpet official and that's it.”

Related: Photos: See All of the Glamorous Celebrities at the Super-Starry Academy Museum Gala

She added wryly, pointing to her beau, “This poor man. This poor guy.”

Katsagans is a resident of Athens, Greece, where he met Vardalos soon after she wrapped My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, which she wrote, directed and starred in. She told PEOPLE in September the two “met on the night of a full moon at an outdoor restaurant in Greece. It's like I wrote a movie and then walked into it.”

Their “most romantic” encounter happened after she had finished filming the comedy on location in Greece. “I believe when you're filming that you have to be like a Barbie doll, like just smooth down there,” the Oscar-nominated screenwriter joked. “You have no sexuality whatsoever… I don't believe in relationships during the making of a movie.”

At the time, Vardalos was mum on details about Katsagans, saying she was “trying to keep it as private as possible to preserve its specialness.”

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Related: Nia Vardalos Jokes She and Sarah Jessica Parker ‘Can Share’ Mutual On-Screen Lover John Corbett (Exclusive)

Now that she’s made Katsagans her official date to Hollywood events, Vardalos is willing to share more details — including that he is a lyricist with a hit song. “We're never going to put anything on Instagram,” she said at the Women in Entertainment Gala of her relationship. “We're not those people.”

But, she added, she’s “still giddy” to be with Katsagans, even after two years. “It is very strange for me to talk about a ‘new’ relationship. I'm going to say giddy is the word.”

Vardalos split from husband Ian Gomez in 2018 after almost 25 years of marriage. The two actors share a teen daughter, Ilaria.

In addition to My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, this year Vardalos appeared in an episode of Syfy and USA Network’s series Chucky. 

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