Shortly after graduating from high school, Mo'Nique decided to pursue comedy full time after enjoying positive audience reception that followed a dare-induced debut performance. She started out entertaining youthful audiences, playing well to high school and college students with her positive outlook and unique attitude, before moving on to open for touring R&B musicians like Keith Sweat and Bobby Brown.

 

Her big break came in 1993 when she played the role of Mark Curry's neighbor and friend "Sonia McDowell" on the ABC sitcom Hangin' With Mr. Cooper (1992-1997). Before long, Mo'Nique was frequently performing on TV's leading black stand-up venues, including stints on Showtime at the Apollo, Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam and BET's Comic View before landing the role for which she became most famous: Nicole 'Nikki' Parker on the UPN television series The Parkers (1999-2004).

Nikki's energetic manner and strong personality was based on the real-life Mo'Nique-–traits that she had famously displayed onstage in her comedy routines. On The Parkers, Nikki and daughter Kim (Countess Vaughn) attend Santa Monica Junior College together, much to the initial chagrin and disdain of the younger Parker. Despite her lack of formal training, Mo'Nique capably handled the role and proved to be charming as an adult student with an eye for her professor (Dorien Wilson) and likeable as a strong-willed young mother.

With her star rising, Mo'Nique launched a soon-to-be thriving film career. Her popularity exploded in 2001 when she was one of four African-American women who headlined a concert film, The Queens of Comedy. From there, she became the host of Showtime at the Apollo, where she was rated "best host of all time" host for the long running show, following a TV website poll. Mo'Nique is the host and executive producer of Mo'Nique's Fat Chance, a beauty pageant for plus-sized women, on the Oxygen cable network.

As her career momentum continued to build, Mo'Nique landed multiple supporting roles in big screen comedies and occasional dramas, with most of her projects predominantly aimed at urban audiences, including 3 Strikes, Tyrese's debut film Baby Boy, Two Can Play That Game, starring Morris Chestnut, Vivica A. Fox and Anthony Anderson; Half Past Dead, and Garfield: The Movie, in which she voiced a CGI character. In 2005, Mo'Nique provided a hysterical cameo in the Tony Scott bounty hunter thriller Domino, co-starring Keira Knightley and Mickey Rourke. By 2006, Mo'Nique was the cast as the lead in Phat Girlz-–a so-called comedy about an aspiring plus size fashion designer struggling to find love and acceptance. Unfortunately for Mo’Nique, her first foray as lead actress in a motion picture was met with a resounding critical and box office thud.

Mo'Nique has two teenage sons from a previous relationship. She has also been romantically linked with singer Gerald Levert. She married Mark Jackson on Christmas Day 1997 and appended his surname to hers professionally, but they separated after four years of marriage and divorced in 2001.

Mo'Nique married her childhood friend Sidney Hicks in 2006. With Hicks she gave birth to twin boys, Jonathan and David, on Monday, October 3, 2005 at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, CA. David and Jonathan weighed 3 lb and 4 lb.

Mo'Nique is the author of the best-selling book Skinny Women Are Evil.