Award-Winning Actress | Playwright/Author | Producer Having worked in Hollywood and Canada with many of the greats―including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Michael Douglas, Alan Arkin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen, Matthew Broderick; John Neville and John Candy, Ivan Reitman, Dan Ayckroyd, Gilda Radner, and Eugene Levy - Monica has moved seamlessly from stage and screen to page and producer’s chair.
Beginning as an actress, Monica appeared in many groundbreaking theatre productions including The Club at Toronto Workshop Productions, Stonehenge Trilogy and Winter Offensive at Factory Theatre and The Seahorse at Toronto Free Theatre. She also appeared in Tarragon Theatre’s The Stag King, The Love Mouse at the Poor Alex, and Possum Playat the Mark Taper Forum. Monica quickly established herself as a comedic mainstay in Canadian television, appearing as a guest in numerous episodics and sketch comedy/variety programs (King of Kensington, Degrassi, Funny Farm, Bizarre, SCTV) but also hosting her own shows ― “Evening Out”, “Sweet City Woman”, “Any Woman Can”, and “There’s Got to Be a Better Way”. A move to Los Angeles brought guest shots on numerous shows including “Murder She Wrote”, “Who’s the Boss”, “E.R.”and “The X-Files”, but it also opened doors to a bigger writing career. She wrote for Helen Ready, Evening At the Improv, and Who’s The Boss. She also penned the beloved and timeless All Dogs Go To Heaven, and the international fan favorite Ms Matched for the Hallmark Channel. She became a producer with credits including “Hunger Point”, starring Christina Hendricks and Barbara Hershey and “The Party Never Stops”, headlined by Nancy Travis. And she has had several feature scripts under studio option.
The next chapter in Monica’s career came about with a family inspired return to Canada. Over the course of a long, cold Toronto winter (and spring and into the summer!) Monica wrote and then performed a very successful one-woman show, “Sex, Pies & a Few White Lies” which premiered in Toronto before touring to California, and eventually spawned her funny and deeply moving 2014 memoir/anti-diet book, Getting Waisted (A Survival Guide to Being fat in a Society That Loves Thin.) Buoyed by the overwhelming critical praise for her work, in 2015 she released her second book, the delightful OMG! How Children See God, based on interviews she conducted with children on two continents. Her third book, published in 2021, focused on the hot-button topic of money. Oops! I Forgot to Save Money married her personal adventures in finance to tales of wisdom and woe from a large sampling of women from all walks of life. It garnered critical praise as well as hitting a nerve that resonated with readers. Her humour and heart is always evident; “Everyone wants us to change. I want us to make the most out of who we already are.”
In addition to Monica's many creative endeavors, she serves as an advisory board member for Humber College's prestigious Television Writing and Producing Program. She is also the co-host of a regular podcast, “How's That Working For You? with The Shrink and the Smarty Pants.
Books: Getting Waisted (A Survival Guide to Being Fat in a Society That Loves Thin) – Published 2014 by Health Communications Inc. Deerfield Beach, Florida.
OMG - How Children See God - Published 2015 by Health Communications Inc. Deerfield Beach, Florida.
“Oops! I Forgot to Save Money” (And It Turns Out I’m Not Alone) – Published 2021 by Smart House Books, Toronto ON She is currently writing her first novel: the humourous yet harrowing journey of a young woman in a time of changing sexual attitudes, titled ‘Adalanta.’ Published Articles: Huffington Post plus other periodicals - sampling When You're Fat It's Everyone's Business 11/05/2014 Fat Is Coming Out of the Closet, 25/06/2014 A Letter to Myself as a Child From My Adult Self, 13/08/2014 Mirror, Mirror, Why Are You So Mean? 28/07/2014 The Changing of the Guard, 07/11/2014 The Weight of Things, 10/03/2014
How I Got Started
I never had a plan. I just did what inspired me and it opened doors that I never imagined. My mother was a couturier (A high-end dressmaker) I could always draw. I was a late-in-life only child. (Meaning, my single mother was always working.) If I wanted to see her, I needed to make myself valuable. I could draw, so from the age of eight, I sketched dresses, which led me to taking many art classes and ultimately to me becoming a dress designer. Serendipitously, that brought a university graduating soon-to-be director into my store. He needed to borrow dresses for his movie thesis project. I said yes if…I half-jokingly said if I could be in his movie. He agreed. That director became the hugely successful Ivan Reitman of Ghostbusters and Twins fame. And I was unexpectedly launched as an actress. It’s easy to see now, that my whole career as a designer, actress, writer, producer and entrepreneur came about because I didn't know not to ask for what I wanted. I just followed my heart and my gut. I knew this much; I was organically an-out-of-the-box thinker and I needed to create things and make things happen. I took chances. I didn’t overthink. I just kept moving forward. If I stumbled, I beat myself up - but not for long. I learned and I got back up again and again. I don't take a failure as an ending but more as a challenge to making a new beginning. Take chances. Do what your heart says and don’t listen to negative people.
Monica went on to write, star and produce her own television series, which Mr. Reitman also directed and in which Dan Aykroyd got his first job in show business as her announcer. For the next twelve years she worked non-stop as an actress and writer in theater, film and television. She starred and co-starred in five other series until she was lured to Los Angeles with an offer to write for the fabled “An Evening at the Improv.”
In Los Angeles, Monica flourished writing and acting in television and film. In 1988 she wrote the very successful All Dogs Go to Heaven. In 1994 she started her own production company “Write Side Up Productions.” Most recently she has finished writing two features, Big Mouth and The Last Single Woman On Earth, both of which are currently under option. In 1996 she produced her first television movie for NBC, A Kiss So Deadly. She has co-starred in several TV movies including ABC’s Radiant City starring Kirstie Alley, CBS’s The Other Woman and Jacey’s Story starring Gena Rowlands. Her feature film work includes Alan Parker’s Road to Wellville starring Anthony Hopkins and Bridget Fonda, Andrew Davis’s A Perfect Murder starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Douglas and Nancy Drew starring Emma Roberts.
In one more serendipitous event, Monica picked Hunger Point to read just as it fell out of feature development. She loved it instantly and knew it would make the perfect film for Lifetime Television, starring Barbara Hershey and Christina Hendricks. Her 2007 TV movie, The Party Never Stops, was nominated for a Prism Award which also generated a nomination for its star Nancy Travis.
Monica is currently starring in her insightful and funny one woman show, Sex, Pies & A Few White Lies which premiered in Toronto in 2011 and spawned her funny and deeply honest 2014 memoir/anti-diet book; Getting Waisted. In 2015, she released her second book, the delightful, much praised OMG! How Children See God. She’s now writing her third book about the hot-button topic, money. She has recently completed a three-year stint on SciFi's hit show Defiance. Monica will soon be seen in the psychological thriller, Helmington.
Amongst Monica's many honours she serves as an advisory board member for Humber College's prestigious Television Writing and Producing Program. Monica has always known she was destined for big things. Having worked in Hollywood and in Canada with many of the greats― including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, John Cusack and Kim Catrall, Monica’s Parker’s smart and sassy take on living life to the fullest and challenging conventional thinking with humor and quick wit have made her a much-desired, actress, writer, speaker & entertainer.
Monica has been married since dinosaurs roamed the earth to her wonderful patient and most-sainted husband, Gilles. They split their time between Toronto and Los Angeles but are determined to find the perfect cottage on a magical lake in Muskoka.