Michelle Lynn Monaghan (born March 23, 1976) is an American actress. The accolades she has received include nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Saturn Award, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award. Monaghan has starred in the films Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), Gone Baby Gone (2007), Made of Honor (2008), Eagle Eye (2008), Trucker (2008), Source Code (2011), Pixels (2015), and Patriots Day (2016). She also received recognition for her role as Julia Meade in the action spy film series Mission: Impossible, making appearances in Mission: Impossible III (2006), Ghost Protocol (2011), and Fallout (2018). On television, Monaghan starred as Maggie Hart in the first season of the HBO anthology crime drama series True Detective (2014). She starred as Sarah Lane in the drama series The Path (2016–18). She played Eva Geller in Netflix thriller series Messiah (2020), and starred in the miniseries Echoes (2022).

Early life

Monaghan was born in the small town (then a population of about 750) of Winthrop, Iowa, the daughter of Sharon (née Hammel) and Robert Monaghan, a factory worker. She has two older brothers, Bob and John. She has mostly Irish and German ancestry, and was raised Catholic. She graduated from East Buchanan High School in 1994. After graduation, she moved to Chicago to study journalism at Columbia College Chicago and began to model. She modeled in Milan, Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, as well as in the United States. With one semester remaining to complete her journalism degree in 1999, she left for New York to pursue an acting career. She worked as a model, appearing in several magazines and catalogs, before making her acting debut.

Career

Monaghan's first two credited television appearances, in a supporting role, were as Caroline Busse in episodes of Young Americans, which aired in 2000. She also performed on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in "Consent", an episode that was broadcast on January 19, 2001, and she made her big-screen debut that same year in Perfume, playing the part of Henrietta. Her next film, again in a supporting role, was in 2002 in Unfaithful, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane. Monaghan got a big-break role in 2002 when she co-starred in the television series Boston Public playing the role of Kimberly Woods. After guest-starring for a season, she returned to film appearing in It Runs in the Family in 2003, Winter Solstice in 2004, and starring with Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005. She also appears in Constantine in 2005, but her role in that film was essentially cut, with her scenes viewable on the DVD under "deleted scenes". In 2007, she co-starred with Ben Stiller in The Heartbreak Kid remake, and with Casey Affleck in Gone Baby Gone. In 2008, she co-starred with Patrick Dempsey in Made of Honor, and co-starred with Shia LaBeouf in Eagle Eye. She starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Source Code. She played Diane Ford in Trucker. In 2014, Monaghan starred in the first season of HBO anthology series True Detective. In April 2016, Monaghan joined the principal cast of Shawn Christensen's independent feature film The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, which began filming later that month. Nine months later, on January 25, 2017, the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In May 2018, it was announced that Monaghan had been cast in the main role of CIA operative Eva Geller in the Netflix thriller Messiah. The series premiered on Netflix on January 1, 2020 and was cancelled after one season. In 2024, Monaghan appeared in a supporting role in the horror film MaXXXine and set to star in the upcoming third season of Emmy Award-winning show The White Lotus, set to be filmed in Thailand in February 2024. In 2024, she began to appear in television ads as a spokesperson for Spectrum.

Personal life

Monaghan met Australian graphic artist Peter White at a party in 2000. They married in Port Douglas, Queensland in August 2005 and live in New York. She gave birth to their daughter in 2008, and their son on October 30, 2013.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations