Monica Villa
SAG-AFTRA AEA
Actress, Singer and Voice Over Artist
Monica is a professional actress, singer and voice over artist who is best known for her work on the New York theater scene, appearing at some of the city's most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall and the Ailey Citigroup Theater. Audiences may also recognize this quirky-voiced ingénue from John Wu's viral short, When Asian Actors Audition for Commercials, as well as her performances with Model Majority, New York's premier all-Asian Comedy Sketch Team.
Originally from NJ, Monica got her start as the cantor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Tenafly. She would continue singing at the church's various masses and religious services until leaving to study at Barnard College of Columbia University.
While attending Columbia, Monica continued to hone her craft through additional training, both locally at NYC's historic HB Studio and abroad in the UK. In the summer of her sophomore year, she was accepted into the British American Drama Academy's Midsummer in Oxford program, where she would study under many of British entertainment's finest including John Gorrie, Mick Barnfather, Irina Brown, Madeline Potter and Fiona Shaw. Monica would ultimately graduate from Columbia with a BA in Theatre and English.
Since graduating, Monica has gone on to perform professionally across various mediums ranging from stage to screen. She has been particularly grateful for the opportunities that have enabled her to collaborate on new works. One of her favorite experiences was originating the role of the Herald in the world premiere of Kimbirdlee and Jonathan Fadner's The Monkey King: A Kung-Fusical.
As a proud Filipina-American, Monica is a strong advocate for Asian representation in the performing arts and always welcomes the opportunity to work with production teams that enable Asian performers to tackle the roles that they traditionally don't get to play. So, it should come as no surprise that she would find herself frequently performing with National Asian Artists Project, alongside other Asian-American trailblazers, including the organization's Tony Award-Winning founder, Baayork Lee. Most recently, Monica performed in NAAP's production of Cinderella under the direction of Sesame Street's Alan Muraoka.
Ever eager to spread her creative wings, Monica has since ventured into the world of comedy sketch writing through her work with Model Majority. Her latest sketch, "A Diver's Guide to Poolside Safety," which was inspired by the life of Olympic diver Vicki Manalo Draves, earned international recognition when it was named one of the "Must-See Comedy Sketches of May 2021" by the Toronto Comedy Sketch Festival. (To learn more about Monica's latest projects, please visit the News section of this website.)
Outside of performing, Monica enjoys traveling, swing dancing and fattening up her friends with whatever baked goodie she happens to be perfecting at the moment.
