Sophie Charlene Akland Monk (born 14 December 1979) is an Australian pop singer, actress and occasional model.

She was once a member of female pop group Bardot and has since established a solo career with the release of an album, Calendar Girl.

More recently, she turned her hand to acting, appearing in films such as Date Movie and Click.

Monk’s professional music career began in 1999 when she responded to an advertisement at the recommendation of her mother which requested girls with vocal and dance experience. The advertisement was for the Australian television series, Popstars, a TV talent show which aimed to create a successful new girl group. Monk, who has been trained in classical and pop singing and has been performing since she was eight years old, drove all night to audition. In one audition, she performed a rendition of Marilyn Monroe’s famous “Happy Birthday, Mr. President”, working on her previous experience as a Monroe impersonator at Warner Bros. Movie World. After numerous rounds of singing and dancing workshops, Monk was selected as a member of the group, which was named Bardot.

Bardot became the first Australian act to debut at the #1 position with both its debut single, “Poison”, and self-titled debut album. Further singles “I Should’ve Never Let You Go” and “These Days” followed and in August, the group embarked on its first national tour. Bardot performed at the 2000 ARIA Awards at which they were nominated in three categories.

In July 2001, the group released “ASAP”, the first single from their second album. Bardot now had more control over their music and image. The single peaked Top 5, as did follow-up single, “I Need Somebody”, their most successful single since “Poison”. The second album, Play It Like That debuted at #16, achieving gold status. Monk co-wrote the album track “Feel Right” with fellow bandmate Sally Polihronas. In 2002, final single, “Love Will Find A Way” completed Bardot’s string of consecutive Top 20 hits and the group embarked on its second national tour. In May, the group disbanded.

Solo music career

Soon after Bardot’s split, Monk began work on her solo career, re-signing a solo contract with Warner Music. She travelled overseas to work with some well-known producers including hit maker Rob Davis (famous for co-writing Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head“) and this resulted in two tracks, “Inside Outside”, Monk’s debut solo single and the album track “Don’t Push It”. Sophie performed her new single for the very first time in September on the grand final edition of the AFL Footy Show at Rod Laver Arena. “Inside Outside” was released 28 October 2002 and after a week of busy promotion, debuted in the Top 5, spending a total of 12 weeks in the ARIA Top 50, receiving gold status. Monk also co-wrote the B-side “Luv Me” (in dedication to her long-term boyfriend of the time) with producer Shane Monopoly. Adding to her growing profile was her role as model and spokesperson for Expozay Swimwear.

Second single, “Get The Music On” was co written by Roselyn Della Sabina, became another Top 10 hit, spending 10 weeks in the Top 50. The single’s B-side “Shake” was also co-written by her.

In May 2003, Monk released her debut solo album, Calendar Girl, which surprised many by mixing contemporary pop-dance and funk with classical opera interludes, Monk having been classically trained growing up. Despite heavy promotion including TV advertising and in store appearances, the album debuted at #35 which was seen as a disappointing result. The album’s final single, the ballad “One Breath Away”, was re-recorded and mixed for single release, peaking at #23 in July, spending only 9 weeks in the Top 100. Despite beginning work on new material in early 2004, including songs with Roselyn Della Sabina and dance act Rogue Traders, Monk parted ways with Warner Music. The material created during these sessions has yet to surface.

Acting career

Sophie Monk has since established herself in Hollywood. Although most of her roles have been reasonably small, she did play Marilyn Monroe for a high-budget telemovie The Mystery Of Natalie Wood (2004) and starred in the music video “Always” for rock group blink-182.

In February 2006, she starred in her debut feature role as the flirtatious and seductive ‘best man‘ Andy in the spoof comedy Date Movie. A scene in the film sees Monk act out a parody of the infamous Paris Hilton burger advertisement, somewhat ironic now since her ex-fiancee started dating Hilton in 2008.

June 2006 saw the release of the Adam Sandler film Click, a story about a universal remote control. The film debuted at #1 on both the US and Australian box office charts. Monk plays a small role in this film; Stacey, David Hasselhoff’s flirtatious, bimbo secretary who she described in an interview as “… kind of a floozy that kind of just works there because she gets around a bit. Another serious character.”

In 2007 she appeared in HBO’s Entourage episode “The Day Fuckers“, which included a sex scene with Vincent Chase.

Also in 2007, Monk played the role of Cynthia Rose in the dark comedy Sex and Death 101, written and directed by Daniel Waters. The film stars fellow Australian actor Simon Baker, and Winona Ryder, and received a straight-to-DVD release on 5 March 2008. ^[2]

In 2009, Sophie Monk is due to appear in a total of 6 films:

Firstly, in the upcoming Warner Bros. comedy Spring Breakdown she plays “Mason Masters”. Monk describes her character as “… the head of the evil girls. I’m like the evil bitch that everyone wants to be like and they all end up hating her.” She has confirmed that she is recording three songs for the film Spring Breakdown and that one of the songs “Candy” will be released as a single to coincide with the film’s release.^[3] She is also set to star in a similarly named comedy titled Spring Break ’83 in which she plays the character Brittany.

Also in 2009, Monk will appear in the horror film Murder World alongside Scout Taylor-Compton, as well as the films The Hills Run Red, Hard Breakers and The Legend of Awesomest Maximus.

Other activities

Monk has also appeared in an array of commercials and advertisements including Primus Telecom, Diet Vanilla Coke,^[4] LG Mobile and 3 Telecommunications. Monk was also the face for the launch of the Biofit Bra by Pleasure State, for which she went on a promotional press tour of Australia.^[5] Monk recorded an update of Salt-N-Pepa‘s “Push It” for the promotion, and a music-video style commercial to accompany it was played throughout Myer stores in Australia. The cover was produced by Benji Madden, Monk’s fiancee at the time, and was released as a promo single in Myer stores.

Monk also a co-presenter with Perez Hilton at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Sydney.^[7] Monk also hosted the 2007 AFI Awards, but was heavily criticized for not handling the gig well.

Monk appeared in a series of reality television styled commercials for MTV to help promote Snoop Dogg for Australian Citizenship. The humorous commercials, that were shot in Bondi Beach, featured Monk living with Snoop and trying to help him adjust to an Australian way of life. His constant cussing at inappropriate times as well as not holding back on conversations of a sexual nature often put him in an awkward position, particularly in one that features Monk’s parents coming to visit for dinner.

In August 2008 she was photographed eating KFC fast-food, despite previously producing several anti-animal cruelty ads and attacking people who eat KFC because of animal-cruelty

Personal life

Monk was born in England, but her parents moved to Australia’s Gold Coast in Queensland. She also spent time at Somerset College and Macgregor State High school.^[11] Prior to, during and after her experience as a member of Popstars, Monk dated an Australian man who she split with shortly before moving to the United States.

Monk has had a tabloid reported private life, including a period dating actor Jude Law.^[12] Monk started dating Benji Madden in 2006, but in January 2008, media outlets reported that the couple had split up. Monk had returned to Australia alone, almost a year to the day since Madden proposed.^[13] On February 12, 2008 it was officially announced by Monk’s Sydney agent, Yoon Kim, that “Sophie and Benji have officially split. The decision was mutual and they remain amicable.”^[14] Three months later, Monk was linked to Ryan Seacrest.

Trivia

• She was attatched to Scary Movie 5 as Cindy’s Evil Twin in 2008. After no confirmation and no new announcements the film is believed to be scrapped and if it was made, it would be without Sophie’s participation.

Check Out Sophie Monk’s Website

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