Monica Barbaro
Birthdate – June 17, 1990 (34 Years Old)
Birthplace – San Francisco, California
Monica Barbaro (birthname: Monica Maria Barbaro) is an actor who has enjoyed success in several TV roles but made her breakthrough on the big screen (after a decade of movie roles) as Joan Baez in filmmaker James Mangold’s well-received dramatization of the rise of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown (2024). Barbaro made her debut as a co-star in directors/writers Brian Follmer’s and Jasen Talise’s comedy, Bullish (2013), with Phillip Correa, and JonPaul Tilleman.
Barbaro appeared in episodic roles in numerous TV series, and then joined the ensemble of her second and first significant screen role in filmmaker Ricky D’Ambrose’s remarkable semi-autobiographical drama, The Cathedral (2021), with Brian D’Arcy James, Mark Zeisler, Geraldine Singer and Willman Bednar-Carter, and which was released by MUBI after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the HFPA Special Prize and then the Independent Spirit Awards’ John Cassavetes Award.
Barbaro was one of the female aviators in the long-awaited sequel, Top Gun: Maverick (2022), starring Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer under Joseph Kosinski’s direction, and released by Paramount Pictures to spectacular box office results of nearly $1.5 billion after a three-year theatrical delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then joined co-stars Mike Colter, Saniya Fredericks and Dylan Baker in director/writer Patrick Gilles’ true-life drama released by Shout! Studios, I’m Charlie Walker (2022).
Monica Barbaro landed the plum role of Joan Baez in the folk heyday of the early 1960s in director/co-writer/producer James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown (2024), starring Timothée Chalamet with Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Boyd Holbrook and Scoot McNairy, and released wide by Searchlight Pictures.
Barbaro co-starred with Barry Keoghan, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, and Tate Donovan in director/co-writer Bart Layton’s US/UK production, Crime 101 (2025), based on Don Winslow’s novella, and released by Amazon MGM Studios.
Videos
Personal Details
Monica Barbaro was born in San Francisco and raised in Mill Valley, California, by parents Nick Barbaro and Heidi Wagner, who divorced during Barbaro’s childhood. Barbaro’s sister is Eva S. Duchovny. Barbaro attended and graduated from Tamalpais High School in 2007 and studied acting and dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance in 2010. Barbaro subsequently studied acting at acting schools in Los Angeles and San Francisco, including the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Barbaro’s height is 5’ 7”.
Filmography
Top Gun: Maverick
Lt. Natasha 'Phoenix' Trace (2022)
A Complete Unknown
Joan Baez (2024)
Some Facts About Monica Barbaro
Dancer: Monica Barbaro danced as a child in The Nutcracker with Marin Ballet in Marin County’s San Rafael.
Top Gun: Barbaro trained for months with Air Force pilots for her preparation for Top Gun: Maverick, and passed a survival-style swim training course in case she had to eject from actual F/A-18 fighter jets deployed in the movie.
