It was in 2023 when Monica Barbaro received the three-word email that would change her life.
Back in 2020, she had auditioned for the role of Joan Baez in a Bob Dylan biopic set to be helmed by Girl, Interrupted director James Mangold.
"I obsessed over Joan Baez," she told Variety of the lead-up to her audition.
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In 2023, Monica Barbaro received an email that changed her life. (Searchlight Pictures)"But I didn't let myself prepare too much. It wasn't my job yet, and I had to protect myself emotionally."
But three years later, Barbaro couldn't believe her eyes when she opened her inbox to see the subject line "Joan is yours."
"I froze, fell to the ground, and cried," she remembered of the moment.
"It was life-changing. I still have a screenshot of that email."
Director James Mangold sent the actress an email with the subject line, "Joan is yours!" (Instagram/monicabarbaro)The film, titled A Complete Unknown, was released on Christmas day in the USA, and it wasn't long before Barbaro found herself falling to the floor at the news of another career milestone.
The actress has been nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category at the Oscars for her performance as Baez, sharing a photo of herself crying on the floor – along with the screenshot of the email – to Instagram shortly after finding out.
"This is me… literally floored upon receiving the news of this nomination - same as I was when Jim cast me in this film in the first place," she wrote.
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When she received her Oscar nomination, Barbaro fell to the floor crying. (Instagram/monicabarbaro)Barbaro has been on our screens multiple times before, appearing in films such as Top Gun: Maverick and TV shows including UnReal and Fubar, but it's her starring role in the Timothee Chalamet-led Bob Dylan biopic that is set to skyrocket her to a new level of fame.
Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about Hollywood's next leading lady, Monica Barbaro.
Monica Barbaro's life growing up
Monica Barbaro was born on June 17, 1990 in San Francisco, growing up alongside her two siblings in Mill Valley and graduating from Tamalpais High School in 2007.
Growing up a quarter Mexican in San Francisco, Barbaro says she was always very aware of how people categorised her.
Her grandmother wore only the finest jewellery and brands to avoid having her worth questioned based on her ethnicity, and even refused to speak Spanish in her own home.
Barbaro (in white) grew up alongside her two siblings in Mill Valley, San Francisco. (Instagram/monicabarbaro)"It's a common experience for mixed-race people: being 'not enough' for either group," Barbaro told Variety.
"My grandma, who was Mexican, wouldn't even speak Spanish at home because she didn't want people to judge us."
Barbaro says her ethnicity has come into question in every role she's taken on as an actor.
"Every job I've booked has come with questions about my percentages – how Mexican or how white I am," she explains.
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Growing up a quarter Mexican, the actress says she was always aware of the way people categorised her. (Instagram/monicabarbaro)"I've never felt fully enough of either side."
Growing up, Barbaro studied dance from a young age and after graduating high school, she moved to New York to pursue her passions.
She secured a place at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance.
However, she always knew something about it wasn't quite right.
"I guess you could compare it to being with someone and you know it's not quite right," she told Cosmopolitan.
"You love them but not enough, and you can't stop thinking about doing other things with your life. That's kind of how I was with ballet."
In an interview with Build Series in New York, Barbaro explained that she'd always had an interest in acting but had never been sure how to make the change since she'd been a dancer her whole life.
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"So, it was actually after I graduated," she said of making the switch.
"I took some classes, I tried to take some electives within Tisch and we had some required acting courses within the dance program.
"But yeah, it really started after I graduated, I moved back to San Francisco and started getting training and doing student films and things like that, and here we are."
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After university, Barbaro made the decision to pursue acting. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)Monica Barbaro's career in film and TV
In 2013 Barbaro scored herself a role in a comedy short titled It's Not About the Nail.
The clip was only two minutes long, but it went on to be one of the greatest assets in her resume.
She gained attention for her acting skills and soon after was offered her first major role.
By 2015 Barbaro was on our screens as Yael in the popular TV show UnREAL, telling Cosmopolitan her first day on set was "madness".
Then in 2017, she was cast as a lead in Chicago Justice, helmed by legendary producer Dick Wolf.
In 2017 she was cast in Dick Wolf's Chicago Justice. (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via)Having grown up a fan of Law & Order, Barbaro told MovieFone the pressure of auditioning for one of Wolf's projects was something she hadn't experienced yet at the time.
"Even in the callback, I woke up that morning – I'm a really deep sleeper and I never wake up for anything at a weird early time," she said.
"I was waking up every day throughout this audition process, and I knew that it was like the most important thing that had happened to me in my career yet, because this matters! This matters to me, like physically, to get this opportunity."
The role in Chicago Justice began opening doors for Barbaro. She went on to appear in Netflix hit The Good Cop alongside Josh Groban and Tony Danza, before scoring herself the role of a lifetime in the 2022 blockbuster film, Top Gun: Maverick.
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2022 saw Barbaro take on a lead role in Top Gun: Maverick. (Paramount Pictures)Barbaro played Lt. Natasha "Phoenix" Trace, the love interest of Miles Teller's Bradley Bradshaw.
It was her biggest gig to date, starring alongside some of Hollywood's most famous names including Glen Powell, Miles Teller, John Hamm, and of course, Tom Cruise.
But despite the stacked call sheet Barbaro walked on to set with no nerves about meeting one of Hollywood's biggest stars, telling James Corden that she's not usually one to get starstruck.
The first day that she met Cruise, Barbaro explains she was standing in the hallway with the rest of the cast, cool, calm and collected - until he walked through the door.
"Suddenly I couldn't feel my legs," she laughed, "he starts shaking hands with everyone in the circle and I'm like 'OK I'm last, I'm last, cool, this is fine, you're cool'.
"He shakes my hand, looks deep into my eyes and I forgot my name. I look across and I see Jay Ellis just smiling at me like, 'You're a mess'."
But according to Cruise he couldn't sense the nerves, telling Corden he thought Barbaro was cool and "poised" the first time they met.
After the success of Top Gun: Maverick, Barbaro went on to lead the 2023 romantic comedy At Midnight and father-daughter detective show Fubar alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The actress says she forgot her own name when she first met Tom Cruise. (Paramount Pictures)Then, when Hollywood got wind of a Bob Dylan biopic in the works, Barbaro called in some help from an old friend.
Speaking with CinemaBlend, Barbaro spoke of how "generous" her former co-star Tom Cruise was to her during the filming of Top Gun: Maverick, sharing that he was always there to "mentor" the younger cast members.
So, when the opportunity to play Joan Baez in the biopic led by James Mangold - a friend of Cruise's - came up, Cruise made sure to put in a good word in for Barbaro.
"He reached out to James Mangold and vouched for me," she told Variety. "That kind of support means everything."
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Cruise reached out to A Complete Unknown's director to recommend Barbaro for the role. (Getty Images for The Walt Disne)Obviously, Barbaro secured the role. She spent five months learning to sing and play guitar, telling Bazaar embodying Baez's musicality was the most challenging part of taking on the role.
"I mean, she was a brilliant singer – is a brilliant singer – and particularly at this time, her voice was absolutely pristine; it was what she was known for," Barbaro explained.
"I was not a singer, and she sang in keys that I could not sing in and, I had never even really tried vibrato. She just was at a skill level that was a bit daunting to me [laughs] and then also playing guitar."
But eventually she nailed it, performing all her own singing and guitar in the film, and going on to score an Oscar nomination for the role.
She performed all her own vocals and guitar in the movie. (Searchlight Pictures)"This was really unexpected," she told Deadline shortly after nominations were announced.
"I was trying not to pay attention to it because there are so many phenomenal actors performances this year and I've just been like, I'm not going to overthink it. I'm not going to expect any of it."
At the moment, Barbaro is in London shooting the upcoming film Crime 101, meaning it won't be long before she's back on our screens – this time alongside A-listers such as Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth.
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