[ James Morgan ]

Monique Sorgen was raised in an international hippie house in the Castro district of San Francisco by her dad-- a civil rights attorney with no personal boundaries-- and her mom-- an immigrant and UC Berkeley French professor, who met him protesting. Monique attempts to live up to her activist parents’ efforts to improve the world by making comedies that are fun but thought provoking and use humor to move the needle on society’s major malfunctions, with a special emphasis on reframing a woman’s place in the world.

Some of her recent “message comedies,” which have been crowd pleasers at over 60 festivals and won multiple awards, can be explored on the homepage of this website. Her films have gotten her into fellowships such as the Sony Pictures Television Diverse Directing Program, BlackMagic Collective’s Women’s Episodic Directing Program, and Alliance of Women Directors’ Directing the Actor Lab; and given her the privilege of directing such legendary actors as M. Emmet Walsh and Ronny Cox, and superstars Alysia Reiner, Wallace Langham, Reid Miller, Mo McRae, Cress Williams, Jessica Oyelowo, Reiko Aylesworth, Zainab Johnson, Sandra Saad, and Kelly Vrooman. She started in Theater, so she loves working with actors. (Her one-act play "Gaslighting" is available at Next Stage Press.)

She built her storytelling skills by directing narrative music videos, multiple seasons of unscripted television, and during her extensive career as a screenwriter, where she worked on TV shows (including for the Brazilian and Indian markets), and feature films with DiNovi, Imagine, Morgan Freeman's Revelations, and David Oyelowo's Yoruba Saxon, among many others. In the indie film world, she wrote a Chinese remake of “Love Stinks,” which was produced in Shanghai, although she wrote it in Hong Kong, and she has worked as a script consultant with many producers, including Mike Gabrawy of Arclight films, and Chris Moore of “Good Will Hunting” and Project Greenlight fame. She even had a staff position in a development think tank at the ABC network, where she only fell more in love with working in show business.

Currently, her feature film directorial debut “One Day in Sedona” is beginning the festival circuit (screenings will be announced here).​ And her debut novel, “How Long You Should Wait to Have Sex” (available on Amazon in English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and French) is in post-production based on a feature film script she wrote.​