A stand-up who turned to drama late and made the turn count. As Mary in Precious she plays a monster as a sick woman nobody ever looked at, and the parts since have not asked nearly as much of her.
Fi1m perspective
Mo'Nique's first trade was stand-up, frank and bawdy and drawn straight from her own life, and it shows in everything she has done on screen since: she does not ask to be liked. Nikki Parker in The Parkers (1999–2004) was loud, wanting and unembarrassed for five seasons, and it made her a mainstream comedy star. Then Lee Daniels cast her as Mary in Precious (2009), the mother who abuses her teenage daughter, and the same refusal to soften was pointed somewhere far darker.
Our review scored the film 72 and said it is carried by two remarkable performances, hers and Gabourey Sidibe's, and undermined every twenty minutes by its own fantasy sequences. That is still our view. We spent most of the running time frightened of Mary and came out, against expectation, sorry for her, and the reason is in how the part is played: not as a villain but as someone ill who was never attended to. She has said as much herself. "I don't hate Mary Jones. I'm sad for Mary Jones." It is the difference between a performance that wants applause and one that wants you to keep looking.
The career since has been thinner than that performance deserved. She hosted her own talk show for two years, played Ma Rainey in Bessie (2015), and has now worked with Daniels four times in all, most recently as Cynthia Henry in The Deliverance (2024). We have not reviewed those and will not judge them here. What we can say is that the shape is a familiar one for comedians who turn out to be able to act: one part everybody remembers, then a long run of supporting roles that do not ask the same question twice.
Daniels is the director who has got the most out of her, and it is no accident that he keeps going back. She has said herself that acting fell into her lap and that she does not audition, which may explain both the scarcity of the film work and the conviction of it when it comes. Watch Precious for her and Sidibe, and put up with the fantasy sequences. Then wait, as we are, for somebody to write her another Mary.
Biography
Mo'Nique, born Monique Angela Imes on 11 December 1967 in Woodlawn, Maryland, is an American comedian and actress. She began performing stand-up comedy in the late 1980s and gained wider recognition as a member of The Queens of Comedy.
She starred as Nikki Parker in the UPN sitcom The Parkers (1999–2004). Mo'Nique received critical acclaim for her role as Mary in the film Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards.
Her other screen credits include Domino (2005), Beerfest (2006) and The Deliverance (2024). She has also hosted The Mo'Nique Show on BET.
