Mo’Nique

Mo’Nique (born December 11, 1967, Woodlawn, Maryland, U.S.) is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and talk-show host known for her bawdy humor and dramatic gravitas. She won an Academy Award for her supporting role in the drama Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (2009).

Early career

Mo’Nique, the youngest of four children, was raised in Baltimore county. At her brother’s suggestion, she took to the stage during an open-microphone night at a comedy club in 1988. Encouraged by the success of her impromptu performance, she began performing professionally at other comedy clubs in Baltimore, Atlanta, and along the East Coast. Eventually, she left her position as a customer-service representative for a telecommunications company to pursue a full-time career in stand-up comedy, and she was soon opening for musicians and appearing in such television specials as Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam and Comic View.

The Parkers and Precious

After Mo’Nique made popular guest appearances on the television show Moesha in 1999 and 2000, a spin-off series was created for her character. She starred for five seasons as Nikki Parker on the sitcom The Parkers (1999–2004), in which she played an ebullient single mother. Film roles soon followed, though the movies were of varying quality, ranging from Baby Boy (2001), about life in inner-city Los Angeles, to Soul Plane (2004), a widely reviled parody of Airplane! (1980) that features stereotypical depictions of African Americans. In addition to acting, Mo’Nique continued to perform stand-up, notably joining the Queens of Comedy tour in 2000.

Britannica Quiz

Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia

Mo’Nique first gained attention as a dramatic actress in Shadowboxer (2005), in which she played a drug addict. She then lent her voice to Farce of the Penguins (2006), a coarse spoof of the nature documentary The March of the Penguins (2005), and starred in Phat Girlz (2006), a romantic comedy. She attained further critical praise for her performance as the violent, sexually abusive Mary in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (2009), which was helmed by Shadowboxer director Lee Daniels. As Mary, the zaftig Mo’Nique stalks the screen, lambasting and assaulting Precious, her teenage daughter, who is HIV-positive and pregnant with a second child by her own father. Critics praised Mo’Nique’s ability to evoke the ignorance and desperation behind the inhuman actions of her character. She won an Academy Award for best supporting actress for the role.

Later roles

Despite that success, Mo’Nique received few film offers. She claimed that Hollywood had blackballed her over her refusal to campaign for Precious during the awards season. Over the next decade, she made only a few movies, including the holiday comedy Almost Christmas (2016). In 2024 she reunited with Daniels on The Deliverance. In the horror film Mo’Nique played a social worker investigating the possible abuse of children who also have been possessed by demons.

While working in film, Mo’Nique continued to appear on television. She was the host of Mo’Nique’s F.A.T. Chance (2005–07), a beauty pageant for full-figured women, and she took her confrontational brand of humor to the talk-show circuit with The Mo’Nique Show (2009–12) on Black Entertainment Television (BET). In 2015 she played Ma Rainey in the TV movie Bessie, a biopic about Bessie Smith. She hosted a televised comedy special, Mo’Nique & Friends: Live from Atlanta, in 2020. In addition, Mo’Nique penned Skinny Women Are Evil: Notes of a Big Girl in a Small-Minded World (2003; with Sherri A. McGee), a profanity-laden apologia for overweight women, and followed with a similar cookbook, Skinny Cooks Can’t Be Trusted (2006).