Monique Morton Derouselle was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. She is a graduate of Southern University Baton Rouge and California State University Los Angeles where she received her MFA in writing for TV, Film, and Theatre. Monique has written, directed, and self produced a few projects to help strengthen her skills as a writer/ director. She won the Bckstry L.A. to L.A. screenwriting competition and the Roadmap Writers Pitch Competition. She was also a finalist in the Create Louisiana French Culture Film Grant and the New Orleans Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Monique has been teaching theatre in the Lafayette Parish School System since 2017. In November 2020, months after giving birth to her baby girl, Monique was accepted to “Unlock Her Potential” and began a year long mentorship program for women of color. She was blessed to have Stefon Bristol, writer/ director of the Netflix film See You Yesterday, as her mentor. With Stefon’s guidance, Monique is in pre- production on her short film Rising Dawn which she will direct as a proof of concept for a feature. Stefon came on as an executive producer for the project and continued to mentor Monique after the program was completed.