Why is Monique so unique? Because she has so many diverse and unique talents. Born a Scorpio on November 8th, Unique Monique was born in Philadelphia, PA and raised in Gloucester Township, New Jersey USA. Her father was a high school history teacher and her mother was an executive secretary for several major engineering companies, later becoming a homemaker upon marrying. Both parents were married late in life. Monique's dad was 46 when he married her mom age 29. They had Monique a year later, and as you can imagine there was a major generation gap between parents and daughter.

During her first of three years at Rowan (Yes, Monique obtained 2 Bachelor of Arts degrees in 3 years, because she wanted to get her math degree over with so she could start pursuing the acting again), Monique joined the college radio station, because the college her parents had chosen for her had no television station! But strangely enough, this turned out to be a good thing, because by fluke, Monique got her own radio show playing techno music. Club music had always been her favorite type of music, but techno music would soon become an obsession of hers. She landed an internship her first year after college at a radio station in Atlantic City, NJ called BOSS 97 ­ 97.3fm WBSS in which she first started using the name "Unique Monique." Ironically, the station happened to play dance music. She was hired as a part-time air personality and morning news/sidekick three months later. During her two-year stint at BOSS 97 (until it closed), Monique was introduced to a plethora of dance artists. She began to strongly desire singing her own club song, knowing she had the passion for the music, enjoyed singing, and could probably do just as good a job. The desire intensified when she began dating a nightclub DJ, who schooled her in dance industry lingo for the 2 1/2 years of their relationship, for that's all the guy ever talked about!

Upon graduating from Rowan College, Unique Monique wanted to totally focus on acting and singing, but she felt she had been out of the loop for too long, and consequently felt she needed some training, but didn't have the finances to do so. She knew she also needed to be emersed in an artistic setting to get her confidence level up, for her parents had become so adamant about her not entering into a career of entertainment, that whenever she tried practicing singing at home, she was put down to the point where she stopped singing altogether in her own house. Because she had neither the time nor the money to find/rent a space to practice, she would try as often as possible to practice singing in the car on her long commutes back and forth to the radio station. She pleaded with her parents that if she promised to come back home and finish student teaching in mathematics, (She was putting that part of her undergraduate program off) she could pursue a MFA (Masters in Fine Arts) in theatre arts at Sarah Lawerence College in Bronxville, NY. A deal was struck, and the education was financed in part by a relative, who had just passed away, and veteran benefits acquired by her father, who had been injured in World War II. For the first year of graduate school, Monique schlepped back to New Jersey once a week in order to finish up an education course which was a prerequisite for student teaching. Although this interfered with her focus on acting at Sarah Lawrence College, she made the best of it and began began making contacts with club DJs in the Philadelphia area each time she came home. She hoped she would find someone who'd be interested in producing some club songs with her, and she did. Monique soon began recording a house-trance song with a novice producer based in South Jersey. She also landed a job at a radio station in the South Jersey shore area during the same time she began working on club music. The station was called FUN 98.7fm WFNN, and for the two summers that she worked there (96' and 97'), Monique literally had the best time of her life. She was known as "Unique Monique The Techno Freak." The station played dance music at night, and Monique entertained the audience by talking about all sorts of different topics, along with playing prank calls on the air and, having people participate in off-the-wall contests. The show was almost like a variety show, except it was on the radio.

Back to what was happening during those two winters (96'-97') at Sarah Lawrence College- during that time Monique dove into acting, comedy, vocal, playwriting, and sound recording classes. She loved the diverse program. The college was eclectic and liberal, and many conservative ideas she had acquired from her upbringing became somewhat altered. Monique had three brief internships within the music business. One was at VH1, another was working with Ru Paul at New York City's dance station 103.5 fm KTU, and lastly an internship at a recording studio called "The Loft" located in Bronxville, NY. She kept jumping from one thing to another because she loved it all! That's when she first realized that it wasn't just one specific genre of the entertainment business that would truly keep her happy, it would be a combination of things. She now has an explanation to give people when they asked her what she wanted to do with her life, and what was so "unique" about her. "I don't want to live my life in a box that someone else has built for me 'cause that's where they see me fit."

Upon graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, Monique went back to New Jersey to live with her parents and to complete her student teaching as promised (7th graders!), although she knew in her heart that she had no intention of being a math teacher for the rest of her life. Monique was still a part-time DJ at FUN 98.7fm WFNN as well, and at this time became the acting music director as well ­ a job in which she had direct contact with record labels.

Towards the end of Monique's student teaching, her father became ill, and four months later passed away. FUN 98.7 had also closed. Her DJ boyfriend and her were no longer together, and her song which she had worked on with the novice producer went nowhere because the producer bailed out (which was a shame because the song had received positive feedback from several DJs, record labels, and radio listeners who heard it on FUN 98.7). To top it off, Unique Monique was back in New Jersey living with her remaining family who was/is still very discouraging about the career path she has chosen.

Because she wanted to audition in New York City for various projects, she took on only jobs that would give her flexibility, and consequently very little money. She kept her hand in radio, but it wasn't her total aspiration. She also made an effort to find a different DJ/producer to work with, but all the producers she seemed to be meeting were scam artists! Finally Monique took the bull by the horn, and posted up flyers at various NYC music schools, including the Institute for Audio Research, advertising for a music producer. This is where she met up with Adrian Gariba, the producer of her current single "Lipstick Lesbian."

Directly after meeting Adrian, Monique landed a job at UCLA as a camp counselor, which she couldn't refuse, because she got to live the summer for free in Los Angeles, CA. She made many good contacts while there, and was able to get into the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) as well. (There is a strong possibility that Los Angeles is where this young woman will one day base herself out of in order to work on television, film, music, and radio simultaneously.) Monique did need to go back to New Jersey/New York, however, to finish recording with Adrian. So for four months, she wrote, recorded, DJed once a week on Atlantic City's 95.1 fm WAYV, and also substitute taught.

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