Background

Isabell Monk was born on the 4th of October, 1952 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. She is the daughter of Henry, a farmer and construction worker, and Jane (Barrett) Monk, a beautician.

Education

Isabell Monk O'Connor received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Towson State University (present-day Towson University). Later, she attended the Yale School of Drama, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. Also, she studied at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

Career

Isabell Monk O'Connor began her career in volunteer work as an acting coach, reader, writing artist and mentor in dozens of Twin Cities schools and volunteer literacy organizations. She held "Storytelling" residencies in association with the Children's Theater Company for two years at Marcy Open and Tuttle Elementary Schools. At Dowling School, her own residency program blended the use of classic children's literature and science for three years.

Besides, Isabell wrote the book Hope that came out in 1999. The Stepping Stone Children's Theater in St. Paul produced The Story of Hope, a play, in the winter of 2001, as well as in February 2006, which was written by Isabell Monk and Matt Vaky.

O'Connor appeared in numerous stage plays, including in the role of Antigone in The Gospel at Colonus in 1985 and that of a policewoman in The Execution of Justice, both Broadway productions. Since 1981 Monk has been in nearly sixty productions on the main stage as well as the Guthrie Lab. She took part in the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1990. Monk performed in a thirty-five-minute piece, Dream Keeper, for schools and libraries in the Twin Cities metro area and was a member of the Guthrie Theater's Acting Company for nine seasons. Moreover, she appeared with other theater companies throughout the United States and performed as a standup comic at Budd Friedman's Improvisation clubs in New York and Los Angeles.

Isabell appeared in such films, as The World According to Garp (1982), Family Business (1989), Rosewood (1997), Grumpy Old Men (1993), Untamed Heart (1993), Trauma (1993), Heartburn (1986), Swing Shift (1984), Here on Earth (200), Sugar and Spice (2001), Intolerable Cruelty (2003) and Black Knight (2001). Her television appearances include the solo show We Ain't What We Was, for Public Broadcasting System, the special Our Own Kind, for ABC-TV, the movies Emma and I, for CBS-TV, Calamity Jane, for NBC-TV, and When She Says No, for ABC-TV, as well as appearances in episodes of the series The Equalizer, Benson and Family Ties. Besides, Isabell appeared in Things That Matter, the local production of KTCA-TV.

After a 40-year career in the theatre acting on stages around the world, as well as on television and in film, O'Connor retired in 2015. Presently, she lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Achievements

• Isabell Monk O'Connor is an outstanding actress, as well as a notable author of books. During her career, she received a number of awards and honors. In 1976, she got the National Award from the Public Broadcasting Service for writing and performing in We Ain't What We Was. She earned the Drama Desk Award for The Gospel at Colonus in 1985. One year later, she was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for Tartuffe. Besides, in 1990, she received the Obie Award for Gloucester in Lear. Isabell took the Midwest Emmy Award for Things That Matter one year later. Also, Isabell is a 1998 McKnight Fellow and a 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Fellow. In 2001, Monk was awarded the Parent's Choice Honor Award for Picture Book Family.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Family

    (In the companion picture book to Hope, Hope's new and unu...)

    2001
  • Blackberry Stew

    (When her Grandpa Jack dies, Hope remembers the time she w...)

    1999
  • Hope

    (During a visit with her great-aunt, a young girl learns t...)

    1999

• movie

  • Trauma

    (A young man tries to help a teenage European girl who esc...)

    1993
  • Cookie

    (Paroled labor racketeer "Dapper" Dino is sought after by ...)

    1989
  • The World According To Garp

    (A struggling young writer finds his life and work dominat...)

    1982
  • Crossing The Bridge

    (Three carefree friends put everything on the line with a ...)

    1992
  • Grumpy Old Men

    (A lifelong feud between two neighbors since childhood onl...)

    1993
  • Untamed Heart

    (Marisa Tomei shines as an unlucky-in-love waitress who fa...)

    1993
  • Swing Shift

    (A woman finds romance when she takes a job at an aircraft...)

    1984
  • Intolerable Cruelty

    (A beautiful gold digger matches wits with a shrewd Beverl...)

    2003
  • Into Temptation

    (A prostitute plans to end her life on her birthday, but h...)

    2009
  • Rosewood

    (A dramatization of a 1923 horrific racist lynch mob attac...)

    1997
  • Family Business

    (An ex professor offers Adam $1,000,000 to "get" some plas...)

    1989
  • Black Knight

    (Martin Lawrence plays Jamal, an employee in Medieval Worl...)

    2001

Views

Quotations: "I am very interested in working with young people, specifically with helping them become more active recreational readers. I also feel that young people need to feel that they can go to a safe place within themselves to get away from the pressures of school, work and home."

"My work in the Minneapolis Public Schools has been most rewarding for me. I'm not teacher material, but I do so enjoy helping to make a teacher's job more fun and less stressful by bringing in the crafts of acting, storytelling and reading aloud to their students. For the students, I feel that I become one more adult who loves them and takes the time to be with them. This is my small way of touching the future."

Membership

Isabell Monk O'Connor is a member of the Actors' Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Connections

Isabell Monk is married to Patrick O'Connor.

Father:

Henry Monk

Mother:

Jane (Barrett) Monk

husband:

Patrick O'Connor