Mo'Nique

Monique Angela Hicks (née Imes; born December 11, 1967), known professionally as Mo'Nique, is an American comedian and Academy Award winning actress.[1][2] She first gained fame as a member of The Queens of Comedy, as well as her role as Nicole "Nikki" Parker in the UPN series The Parkers while making a name as a stand-up comedian hosting a variety of venues, including Showtime at the Apollo. Mo'Nique transitioned to film with roles in such films as Phat Girlz (2006) and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008). In 2002, she, along with several other female comedians, earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album.

Mo'Nique
Born
Monique Angela Imes

(1967-12-11) December 11, 1967
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Other namesMyelle Kaye
Occupation
  • Comedian
  • actress
  • talk show host
  • author
Years active1990–present
Works
Full list
Spouse(s)
Mark Jackson
(
m. 1997⁠–⁠2001)

Sidney Hicks
(
m. 2006)
Children4
AwardsFull list
Websitemoniqueworldwide.com

In 2009, she garnered critical acclaim for her performance in the film Precious and won numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the fourth African American woman to win the award after Hattie McDaniel, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jennifer Hudson, respectively. She hosted The Mo'Nique Show, a late-night talk show that premiered in 2009 on BET; it was cancelled in 2011. In 2015, she drew rave reviews for her performance as Ma Rainey in the HBO biopic Bessie and earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Early life

Mo'Nique was born on December 11, 1967, in Baltimore, Maryland,[1] the daughter of engineer Alice Imes and drug counselor Steven Imes, Jr.[3] She is the youngest of four children. Mo'Nique graduated from Milford Mill High School in Baltimore County in 1985[4] and attended Morgan State University.[5] She is a 1987 graduate of the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland.[6]

Before she was an actress, Monique worked as a customer service representative at the phone company MCI in Hunt Valley, Maryland.[7] She got her start in comedy at the downtown Baltimore Comedy Factory Outlet when her brother Steve dared her to perform at an open mic night.

During a 2008 Essence magazine interview, Mo'Nique revealed that she was sexually abused by her brother Gerald from ages 7–11; he went on to sexually abuse another girl and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. After her twin boys were born in 2005, Mo'Nique cut off all contact with Gerald. On April 19, 2010, he admitted on Oprah to sexually abusing her over several years. He also was abused by family members and struggled with substance abuse.[8]

Career

Television roles

Mo'Nique portrayed Nicole "Nikki" Parker on the UPN television series The Parkers from 1999 to 2004. She was featured on many leading stand-up venues such as Showtime at the Apollo, Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam, and Thank God You're Here. Monique tackles race issues in her stand up routines, for instance at the Montreal Just For Laugh Festival in 2000: white and black people, we're just mad at each other, we don't know why we're mad at each other. We're not each other's enemy. We're not the enemy. It's the Chinese people we need to watch out for".[9]

She was also named hostess of Showtime at the Apollo. She was the hostess and executive producer of Mo'Nique's Fat Chance, a beauty pageant for plus-sized women, on the Oxygen cable network. She hosted the first season of Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School on VH1 where she crowned Saaphyri as the winner. Mo'Nique's 2007 documentary I Coulda Been Your Cellmate! focuses on incarcerated women. In interviews with individual women, she touches on the common factors that bring many women into the penal system. The documentary was related to her filming a comedy special at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, also known as The Farm. In 2007, she had a guest-starring role on the hit television series Ugly Betty as L'Amanda, Mode's weekend security guard.

She starred in The Mo'Nique Show, her own late-night talk show. Taped in Atlanta, the show premiered October 5, 2009, on BET.[10]

Film and video career

Mo'Nique has had a number of supporting roles in film. She appeared in the 2008 comedy film, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins with Martin Lawrence. She has had roles in Beerfest, 3 Strikes, Two Can Play That Game, Half Past Dead, and Soul Plane. She voiced a character in Garfield: The Movie, but her role was cut from the movie.

In 2005, Mo'Nique played a significant role in Tony Scott's thriller Domino, co-starring Keira Knightley and Mickey Rourke. In 2006, Mo'Nique was cast as the lead in Phat Girlz, a comedy about an aspiring fashion designer struggling to find love and acceptance. The film was met with lukewarm response from critics and fans. It did earn back its $3 million production cost in its first weekend of release.[11]

She was featured in soul singer Anthony Hamilton's video "Sista Big Bones", the second single from his album Ain't Nobody Worryin'. She hosted the 2003 and 2004 BET Awards and appeared as the host again for the 2007 BET Awards. She received positive responses in July 2004 with her opening performance of Beyoncé's single "Crazy in Love" In 2007, she performed Beyoncé's "Déjà Vu".

In 2008, Mo'Nique stated on Oprah Winfrey Show that Martin Lawrence gave her invaluable advice about show business: "He pulled me to the side and he said, 'Listen, don't ever let them tell you what you can't have.' Since that day, I've made some of the best deals I've ever made in my career because it keeps ringing in my head...It will stay with me forever."[12]

In 2009, Mo'Nique appeared in the film Precious, directed by Lee Daniels, portraying an inner-city teenager's abusive mother. She won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for her performance in the film. The African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) awarded Mo'Nique with the Best Supporting Actress Award in December 2009. It also announced that Mo'Nique received the AAFCA's first ever unanimous vote in an acting category. Moreover, she received Best Supporting Actress awards from the Stockholm International Film Festival, the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Online, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, the Utah Film Critics Association, the Detroit Film Critics Society, the Indiana Film Critics Association, the Online Film Critics Society, the National Society of Film Critics Awards, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and the Critics Choice Awards. Time magazine ranked Mo'Nique's outstanding performance as the Best Female Performance of 2009. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Independent Spirit Award, and the BAFTA Award.[13][14][15][16]

In November 2009, Mo'Nique said, "I own the rights to Hattie McDaniel's life story, and I can't wait to tell that story because that woman was absolutely amazing. She had to stand up to the adversity of black and white [society] at a time when we really weren't accepted. Mr. Lee Daniels is going to direct it, of course, and I'm going to be Miss Hattie McDaniel. I really hope I can do that woman justice."[17]

In 2014, Mo'Nique starred in Patrik-Ian Polk's drama film Blackbird as Claire Rousseau. Her last role (in film or television) was in 2016. In May 2017, she said Lee Daniels, Oprah Winfrey, and Tyler Perry had been blackballing her ever since she did not promote Precious in 2009.[18][19]

Theater

Mo'Nique's first play was Eve Ensler's Obie Award-winning production of The Vagina Monologues in March 2002. Mo'Nique, Ella Joyce (Roc); Wendy Raquel Robinson (The Steve Harvey Show and The Game) and Vanessa Bell Calloway (What's Love Got to Do with It), were the first all black celebrity cast to perform The Vagina Monologues. Produced by YYP & Associates, the show was directed by playwright and director Yetta Young as well as co-produced by Kellie R. Griffin, Lisa D. Washington and Anita Cal.

Books and radio

Mo'Nique is the author of the best-selling book Skinny Women Are Evil: Notes of a Bigg Girl in a Small-Minded World. She also released a 2006 cookbook called Skinny Cooks Can't Be Trusted.

Mo'nique was part of the Washington, D.C., WHUR radio show with George Wilborn.

In 2006, she occasionally filled in for afternoon personality Michael Baisden when his contract with ABC Radio was in the process of getting renewed.[20]

In 2008, Radio One signed her to her own radio show: Mo'Nique in the Afternoon (or The Mo'Nique Show), which premiered on several Radio One-owned Urban Adult Contemporary-formatted R&B/soul radio stations in July 2008. It mainly aired on these stations that had a local lineup because some Radio One stations did not carry it due to their contracts with Michael Baisden. The show lasted until March 18, 2009, when Mo'Nique decided to leave to "further her career in television, film, and comedy."[21]

Personal life
Mo'Nique and husband Sidney Hicks attending the 82nd Academy Awards

Mo'Nique was briefly engaged to accountant Kenny Mung.[22]

From 1997 to 2001, she was married to Mark Jackson.

Mo'Nique gave birth to twin sons Jonathan and David Hicks in October 2005, two months early.[23] In 2006, she married their father Sidney Hicks. In a New York Times profile, she mentions that she and Hicks have an open marriage:

We have an agreement that we'll always be honest, and if sex happens with another person, that's not a deal breaker for us, that's not something where we'll have to say, 'Oh God, we've got to go to divorce court because you cheated on me.' Because we don't cheat.[24]

She repeated this view later on The Oprah Winfrey Show when she said that, in her prior marriages, she was constantly searching for "that extra oomph".[25] Mo'Nique explained,

When I said I had an open marriage, people automatically jumped to sex. They automatically went there. But I've been best friends with my husband since we were 14 years old. When we say open, we're very honest. There are no secrets. Oftentimes you have people that are married, but they're strangers, and we refuse to be those people.[26]

She concluded, "I've had to sneak and I've had to lie, and I don't want to do that any more. But my husband is so awesome and so fine and so—oh, girl...No other man can compare".[26]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
2000
 3 Strikes Dahlia
2001
 The Queens of Comedy Herself
Baby Boy Patrice
Two Can Play That Game Diedre
2002
 Half Past Dead Twitch's Girl
2004
 Soul Plane Jamiqua
Hair Show Peaches
Garfield: The Movie Rat Role deleted in final cut of the film
2005
 Shadowboxer Precious
Domino Lateesha Rodriquez
2006
 Farce of the Penguins Vicky Voice
Irish Jam Psycho
Phat Girlz Jazmin Biltmore
Beerfest Cherry
2008
 Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins Betty
2009
 Steppin: The Movie Aunt Carla
Precious Mary Lee Johnston Won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress [27]
2014
 Blackbird Claire Rousseau
Interwoven Barbara
2016
 Almost Christmas Aunt May

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1999–2000 Moesha Nicole "Nikki" Parker Seasons 4 & 6 (3 episodes)
2001 The Hughleys Nicole "Nikki" Parker Season 3 (1 episode)
2002 The Proud Family Boonnetta (voice) Season 2, (1 episode)
2003 Good Fences Ruth Crisp Television film
2004 The Bernie Mac Show Lynette Season 3 (1 episode)
1999–2004 The Parkers Nicole "Nikki" Parker Lead role (5 seasons, 110 episodes)
2006 Rugrats Aunt Moo Direct-to-DVD episode "Tales from the Crib: Three Jacks and a Beanstalk"
2006 Nip/Tuck Evetta Washington Season 4 (1 episode)
2007 Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School Host/Herself 11 episodes
2007 The Game Plus Size Actress Season 2 (1 episode)
2007 The Boondocks Jamiqua (voice) Season 2, Episode 1 (1 episode)
2007 Ugly Betty L'Amanda Season 2 (1 episode)
2009–2011 The Mo'Nique Show Host/Herself 2 seasons, 251 episodes
2014 Love & Hip Hop: New York Host/Herself Season 4 (2 episodes – Reunion Special)
2015 Bessie Ma Rainey Television film

Residency show
  • 2019: Mo'Nique Does Vegas (held at SLS Las Vegas)[28]

Awards and nominations
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Mo'Nique
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References
  1. "Mo'Nique: Biography". Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved February 22, 2009.
  2. Fernandez, Sofia M. (August 1, 2011). "'Mo'Nique Show' Put on Indefinite Hiatus". The Hollywood Reporter.
  3. John-Hall, Annette (April 8, 2006). "Proudly 'phat' actress has a new, plus-sized role". AZ Central.com. Retrieved December 16, 2009.
  4. "monique imes Milford Mill High School/Academy '85 BALTIMORE, MD". classmates.com. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
  5. Crockett, Sandra (November 19, 1994). "Comedian has fine time just being Mo'Nique Laughing out LOUD". The Sun. Retrieved December 16, 2009.
  6. "Broadcasting Institute of Maryland". Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  7. The Oprah Winfrey Show, Interview with the cast of Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. Original air date January 28, 2008.
  8. "Mo'Nique's Brother, Gerald Imes, Apologizes to Precious Star for Sexual Abuse". ABC News. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  9. "Montreal Just For Laugh Festival 2000". Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  10. BET Coming Soon Monique Show Official Page Archived 2009-10-02 at the Wayback Machine
  11. Users, IMDb. "IMDb Bottom 100". IMDb.
  12. "Martin Lawrence's Advice to Mo'Nique". Oprah.com. Retrieved January 28, 2008.
  13. "The Hurt Locker Schools An Education, Avatar at Brit-Snubbing BAFTAs". E Online.
  14. "2009 Supporting Actress". The Film Experience. Archived from the original on April 9, 2009.
  15. "OSCAR PREDICTION CHARTS". InContention.com. February 23, 2009.
  16. "Will Sandra Bullock, Mo'Nique Meet Their New Man, 'Oscar'". Lexib.net. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  17. Ben; Walters (November 15, 2009). "Comic Mo'Nique takes dramatic turn in "Precious"". The Hollywood Reporter / Reuters.
  18. "Today in Entertainment: Katy Perry cops to that Taylor Swift feud; Vanity Fair's 'Star Wars' covers cue the waterworks". LA Times. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  19. "Mo'Nique: I Was "Blackballed" After Winning My Oscar". The Hollywood Reporter.
  20. "Monique to Fill in for Michael Baisden". All Access. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  21. "Syndicated Personality Mo'Nique to End Mo'Nique Show". Radio Online. Archived from the original on March 17, 2009. Retrieved March 24, 2009.
  22. Yarbrough, Marti (November 11, 2002). "Actress and comedienne Mo'Nique of the Parkers talks about her: career new book `Skinny Women are Evil' new fiance". JET Magazine.
  23. "Mo'Nique a New Mom Again – of Twins". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  24. Lee, Felicia R. (August 5, 2007). "Luckily, There's Plenty of Her for Everybody". New York Times. p. 2.
  25. Sheri Salata (Producer). (Jan 28, 2008). The Oprah Winfrey Show. Chicago: Harpo Productions, Inc.
  26. "Mo'Nique on her open marriage". Oprah.com. Archived from the original on January 31, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2008.
  27. "82nd Oscars highlights". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. September 5, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
  28. Brock Radke (January 10, 2019). "MO'NIQUE KICKS OFF HER FIRST VEGAS COMEDY RESIDENCY AT SLS". lasvegasweekly.com. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
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