Born in Youngstown, Ohio and raised in Los Angeles, California, Monikka Stallworth first contemplated a career in filmmaking after viewing Spike Lee’s School Daze.  "It hadn’t occurred to me before that I could aspire to become something as interesting as a ‘filmmaker’.  That was definitely an ‘a-ha’ moment." While the road to realizing her dream has certainly proved a laborious one, Monikka has steered the course. After earning a BA in Radio, TV & Film from Howard University, she returned to Los Angeles where after a stint as a production assistant on the popular sitcom "Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper", Monikka became a teacher in the Compton Unified School District. After two years of teaching, she decided to put her energies towards her true passion. Over the span of three years, she amassed a resume that reflected that of a person "paying their dues" working as a production assistant on several varied projects and also as a 1st AD, Segment Producer and eventually, Producer. Monikka was certain she was nearing her goal.  And to harness it, she pursued a graduate degree and earned an MFA in Film Producing from Chapman University.  Upon graduating, success danced on the horizon when her thesis project, Asha Blue, was selected as a finalist in the Sundance Feature Film Lab Program and again when Asha Blue became a finalist in the ABC New Talent Development Program.  A woman of vision and perseverance, Monikka wrote, produced and directed the quirky and highly entertaining short film Mello’s Kaleidoscope and it is an awesome sample of her great potential as a future filmmaker.

Monikka lives in Los Angeles and works as a contributing writer for blackfilm.com.  She is completing the feature length screenplay titled Asha Blue and developing other feature projects.