about? me!
I'm a Canadian born, Brooklyn based, actor, improvisor, writer and comedian. This bio is written in the third person because that's how I imagine Oprah writes her to-do lists. How amazing would it be if I met Oprah one day, showed her my bio and she was all like, "that's how I write my to-do lists!" I think we'd both have a pretty good laugh over it, that's for sure.
the writer- performer
Monique received her BA in Theatre from York University in Toronto, Canada. She mentored with BCurrent's Raiz’N Ensemble, and worked extensively with female artist collective Birdtown & Swanville -most notably as actor and choreographer for Toronto Fringe fest favorite 36 Little Plays About Hopeless Girls. Her one woman play The Banana Dance- about the life of Josephine Baker- was chosen as a featured staged reading at B Current’s Rock.Paper.Sista’s 6 theatre festival. National newspaper The Toronto Star also did a full length feature article on the work.
Monique has starred in and created content for Funny or Die, College Humor, Mashable, Refinery29, Bustle, BrickTV, and IFC Comedy Cribs (including X Pat, her self written IFC series and IFC’s Sport Court, which was listed in Indiewire’s 10 best web series of 2017). In 2018, her sketch show with comedy team Astronomy Club debuted on Comedy Central’s digital platforms, and has since been listed by Vulture and Paste magazines as one of “2018’s best web series” and “best sketch comedy series”. How cool is that!
the actor- improvisor
Monique has studied with Second City Toronto, UCB and The PIT, and has performed in comedy clubs, theaters, colleges and festivals all over the country with improv teams Day Camp Kids, Nobody’s Token, Astronomy Club and NYC's premier Hip Hop Improv team Northcoast (voted one of Time Out NY Best Comedy Shows in 2014). Fun fact- in the summer of 2016, she won Best Actress at the Midtown International Theatre Festival for portraying Wu Tang Clan's the RZA in off Broadway musical Martin Shkreli's Game: How Bill Murray Joined The Wu-Tang Clan (what a world!) and in 2017, Monique co-won the UCB NBC Universal Diversity Scholarship Competition. She now performs weekly with UCB weekend team Airwolf, monthly with Astronomy Club in Let’s Talk About Race, Baby! and can be seen every now and then in UCB’S long running Asssssscat! show, Sundays at UCB Hell’s Kitchen.
In addition to her improv credits, Monique has appeared on Broad City Season 3, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, filmed a pilot as an finalist entry for the NBC Playground Competition, made hosting appearances on VH1's The 20 and shot web commercials for ABC7 and ABC Daytime.
the director- teacher
Monique is also a company member, director and teaching artist for The Story Pirates, a nationally recognized children’s media and education company. With the Story Pirates, Monique has performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, as a featured performer at Scholastic’s National Teen Writing Competition and as a voice actor on The Absolutely Mindy Show, the Story Pirate’s monthly radio show on Sirius XM.
She also directs PIT house sketch team Raditude, BoogieManja sketch team Back Room, teaches improv at UCB and is an improv and sketch teaching artist with Abrons Arts Center.
the dancer- choreographer
And finally, in another life, Monique spent many years training and working as a dancer (with a concentration in hip hop and street dance). She can be seen in commercials for Dairy Farmers of Ontario and the Hot Docs film festival, music videos for Kevin Lyttle and Robbie Williams and corporate performances for Pepsi and Kia Motors.
She and her work have been performed in choreographer’s showcases/dance competitions Toronto’s Choreographer’s Ball, Dance Immersion, Prelude East Coast and World of Dance and has taught hip hop classes for the Joffrey Ballet, street dance school House of Movement and Nest+m Afterschool. She is the former Artistic Director of RiSE hip hop dance crew, and in 2013 lead the team to place 5th out of 18 teams at World of Dance New York. Dance will always be her first love. ~Le sigh!