Monica Lousie Potter was born on June 30th, 1971 in Cleveland, Ohio. She grew up just off of picturesque Lake Erie in a blue-collar Roman Catholic family. Her father was the inventor of the first flame-resistant car wax, but never cashed in on the invention's profits, being a salaried inventor. While not born with a silver spoon, Monica grew up in a happy family with three other siblings. Miss Potter first dipped her toe in the ocean of show business back in Cleveland. Her father sent a blossoming 12-year-old Monica's photograph to a local modeling agency, which hired her immediately. Her family soon encouraged her to pursue a career as an actress. When she was 18, she moved to Miami, Florida, and landed a job on a children's show that shot in Peru, which she described as the "disaster of disasters." She gave birth to her first child a year later when she was nineteen; she hasn't publicly disclosed the identity of the father. When she was 24, Monica moved on to Hollywood with a small child in tow and another on the way, where her first job was on the soap opera, The Young and the Restless. Soon she landed a role in the 1996 film, Bulletproof, which she followed up with the straight-to-video Richard Grieco and Yasmine Bleethjuggernaut, Heaven or Vegas. For years she was a typical struggling actress in B-films and low-paying jobs. She had her first break through in 1997's Con Air with Nicolas Cage. She soon landed roles in box-office smashes like Patch Adams and the recent Along Came a Spider, and had the chance to look pretty in the Freddy Prinze Jr. flick, 'Head Over Heels'. Monica also won critical acclaim in the 1998 film, 'Without Limits' about the track star, Steve Prefontaine. Monica has proven herself a hard-luck kid who has risen from a small town to the gleaming towers of Hollywood fame. While not quite a household name yet, be on the lookout for this blonde to take over your entertainment universe.