Monica Staggs
Encyclopedia
Monica Staggs is an American
stuntwoman
and actress.
, the oldest daughter of Thomas Staggs, an architect
, and Nova, a teacher
. She enjoyed frequent trips to Casa Bonita
and developed a lifelong, diehard love for the Denver Broncos
. When she was five, her family, which included her younger sister, Amy, moved to Sherwod, a neighborhood of North Little Rock, Arkansas
where she grew up a tomboy, practicing how to rouchambeau redneck boys on the playground and playing Charlie's Angels
in the woods behind her house. She began dance lessons at the age of eight in ballet
, tap
and jazz
and danced at Studio One For the Performing Arts run by Sally RIggs, until she graduated high school.
Staggs attended college at the University of Arkansas
at Fayetteville
where she majored in Drama and Creative Writing, acted
in many theatrical productions
, and kept up her study of dance
. In the summers she waited tables, canned fish in a salmon cannery in Alaska
, painted houses, and won poetry slams. In her senior year at college, Monica got to work on a film that had come to Little Rock called Shelter, where she was the stand in for the lead actress as well as landing a small part. Monica got her big break when she was luckily offered the chance to be the lead actresses’ stunt double
. She rode passenger as a car ran off an embankment, crashing through trees before and stopping just before a lake. Getting a taste for the thrill of the film business, three weeks later, Monica flew to L.A.
for the first time and worked on her second film. She fell in love with Los Angeles and everything about it. As soon as she returned to Arkansas she announced she was moving to L.A. and two weeks later she did on the plane, knowing just one very important soul, Gary Wayton. She arrived officially in L.A. with three large duffle bags, a fork, knife, spoon and a bath towel, and has never looked back.
, stunt fights, and boxing
.
She has done stand-up comedy
, performing at The Improv
, The Comedy Store
, the Laugh Factory and various other places and is currently working on her new act. She has worked on more than one hundred film and television productions and has also worked as a stunt coordinator
. She is also a board member of the Stuntwomen’s Association.
Staggs still lives in L.A. where she loves to play Texas hold 'em
, enters tournaments regularly and hosts home games where she attempts to take money from her fellow stunt peers. Her other pastimes include watching South Park
, Reno 911!
and any and all horror
movies. She is currently shooting a sketch comedy pilot that she wrote and in which she will star. One of her characters, Cletus Rufus, can be found at her website.
Staggs played a minor part in Quentin Tarantino’s
2007 Grind House project and was honored at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards
when she was brought to the stage by Tarantino to share the award for Best Fight in Kill Bill 2
. In March 2009, Staggs appeared in the web series Angel of Death
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stuntwoman
Stunt performer
A stuntman, or daredevil is someone who performs dangerous stunts, often as a career.These stunts are sometimes rigged so that they look dangerous while still having safety mechanisms, but often they are as dangerous as they appear to be...
and actress.
Early life
Staggs was born in Boulder, ColoradoBoulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
, the oldest daughter of Thomas Staggs, an architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, and Nova, a teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
. She enjoyed frequent trips to Casa Bonita
Casa Bonita
Casa Bonita is a chain of Mexican-themed "eatertainment" restaurants which originated in Oklahoma City. As of 2011, only one location remains open, in the western Denver suburb of Lakewood, Colorado....
and developed a lifelong, diehard love for the Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. When she was five, her family, which included her younger sister, Amy, moved to Sherwod, a neighborhood of North Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
where she grew up a tomboy, practicing how to rouchambeau redneck boys on the playground and playing Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
in the woods behind her house. She began dance lessons at the age of eight in ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, tap
Tap dance
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...
and jazz
Jazz dance
Jazz dance is a classification shared by a broad range of dance styles. Before the 1950s, jazz dance referred to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. In the 1950s, a new genre of jazz dance—modern jazz dance—emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance...
and danced at Studio One For the Performing Arts run by Sally RIggs, until she graduated high school.
Staggs attended college at the University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...
at Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...
where she majored in Drama and Creative Writing, acted
Acting
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....
in many theatrical productions
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, and kept up her study of dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
. In the summers she waited tables, canned fish in a salmon cannery in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, painted houses, and won poetry slams. In her senior year at college, Monica got to work on a film that had come to Little Rock called Shelter, where she was the stand in for the lead actress as well as landing a small part. Monica got her big break when she was luckily offered the chance to be the lead actresses’ stunt double
Stunt double
A stunt double is a type of body double, specifically a skilled replacement used for dangerous film or video sequences, in movies and television , and for other sophisticated stunts...
. She rode passenger as a car ran off an embankment, crashing through trees before and stopping just before a lake. Getting a taste for the thrill of the film business, three weeks later, Monica flew to L.A.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
for the first time and worked on her second film. She fell in love with Los Angeles and everything about it. As soon as she returned to Arkansas she announced she was moving to L.A. and two weeks later she did on the plane, knowing just one very important soul, Gary Wayton. She arrived officially in L.A. with three large duffle bags, a fork, knife, spoon and a bath towel, and has never looked back.
Career
After moving to L.A., Staggs's dance training, her height and slender build gave her an advantage when competing for stunt jobs and within three weeks she was lucky enough to land her third film. She began training in other areas of stunt work such as stunt driving, martial artsMartial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
, stunt fights, and boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
.
She has done stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
, performing at The Improv
The Improv
The Improv is a comedy club franchise. Originally, it was a single venue founded in 1963 by Budd Friedman and located in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City on West 44th near the SE corner of 9th Ave. A second location was opened in 1974 at 8162 Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax District...
, The Comedy Store
The Comedy Store
The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. It has a sister comedy club in La Jolla, San Diego, California.-History:...
, the Laugh Factory and various other places and is currently working on her new act. She has worked on more than one hundred film and television productions and has also worked as a stunt coordinator
Stunt coordinator
A stunt coordinator, usually an experienced stunt performer, is hired by a TV, film or theatre director or production company to arrange the casting and performance of stunts for a film, television programme or a live audience...
. She is also a board member of the Stuntwomen’s Association.
Staggs still lives in L.A. where she loves to play Texas hold 'em
Texas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...
, enters tournaments regularly and hosts home games where she attempts to take money from her fellow stunt peers. Her other pastimes include watching South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
, Reno 911!
Reno 911!
Reno 911! is an American comedy television series on Comedy Central that ran from 2003 to 2009. It is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically COPS, with comic actors playing the police officers. Most of the material is improvised, using a broad outline, and...
and any and all horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
movies. She is currently shooting a sketch comedy pilot that she wrote and in which she will star. One of her characters, Cletus Rufus, can be found at her website.
Staggs played a minor part in Quentin Tarantino’s
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
2007 Grind House project and was honored at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards
MTV Movie Awards
The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...
when she was brought to the stage by Tarantino to share the award for Best Fight in Kill Bill 2
Kill Bill
Kill Bill Volume 1 is a 2003 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart, the second volume being Kill Bill Volume 2....
. In March 2009, Staggs appeared in the web series Angel of Death
Angel of Death (Web Series)
Angel of Death is a web series of eight to ten minute episodes created by Ed Brubaker. The series stars Zoë Bell as Eve, an assassin taking revenge on her former employers, and costars Lucy Lawless. Angel of Death was produced by White Rock Lake Production and distributed by Sony Pictures Television...
.