Why Monica Barbaro From A Complete Unknown Looks So Familiar

If you tuned into the 2025 Golden Globes, you probably noticed there was a definite "it girl" table at the ceremony. Throughout the evening, the camera cut to Kylie Jenner, who was, of course, present as the plus-one of Timothée Chalamet. The couple sat with (and took plenty of selfies with) Chalamet's co-stars from "A Complete Unknown": former child star Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro. While most of us were quick to recognize Fanning, Barbaro was a little more of a mystery. In fact, after the ceremony, countless people took to social media to point out that she looked an awful lot like Jenner. As one X user put it, "It's so funny how Monica's face is literally filler-less Kylie."

So, who is this Kylie Jenner lookalike who is starring in Chalamet's latest film? Here is why Monica Barbaro may look so familiar — aside from the fact that she and Jenner could be sisters.

Monica Barbaro didn't initially plan to go into acting — in fact, she grew up with dreams of being a ballerina. However, while studying at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts to study dance, she began to find herself gravitating towards acting. "When I went to NYU, I took as many electives as I could in acting...Once I got out [of school] I was like, 'OK, this is my time." I had that realization, I can't not do this any longer,'" she told Cosmopolitan in 2016.

After graduating in 2010, Barbaro moved home to San Francisco to start out in a smaller pool of actors. Soon enough, she booked her first commercials. Some of her TV spot credits include a 2014 Navy Federal Credit Union ad, multiple Verizon ads, and a 2013 Lumosity ad.

Barbaro also ended up in a lot of short films. In a 2013 short titled "Tinker," she scored her first significant role when she was picked to play the part of Alice. "These guys were great, they built this entire set in this big apartment warehouse that they had," she recalled to Soma Magazine. "They just poured all their money and love and time into this period piece... I couldn't have been more fortunate to start off that way." 

After she spent a few years doing commercials and short films, Monica Barbaro decided to step away from acting, working at Free People and a gym. "I even took some time off, like maybe I don't want to be a performing artist, I'm not sure," she recalled to Cosmopolitan. "And then got swept up back into it."

Before long, she racked up small guest roles on a range of TV shows. Her first part came in 2014's 'Table Manners." Next up, she was cast as Bentley in an episode of ABC's "Stitchers." This was followed by parts in "Hawaii Five-0," "Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life," and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." With each gig, Barbaro kept growing as an actor. "Each project yields something new," she said to Soma Magazine. "I haven't stopped learning since the day I started acting."

In 2016, Monica Barbaro nabbed her first lead role in a major series. In Lifetime's "UnREAL," she played Yael, fondly known as "Hot Rachel," a contestant on a "Bachelor"-style dating show. "It's a reminder that [reality shows] are a production being made to entertain you and to shock you," Barbaro said of the scripted series to Elle. "These are just people underneath it all and it's important to see that."

If you watched the show, you may certainly remember the scene when she fell into a pool and pretended to drown to get the lead male suitor's attention. As she told Cosmopolitan, filming that moment was "quite an experience." In fact, it was actually her first night on the set. 

You may also remember that Yael was actually an undercover reporter. "The exciting thing about having a secret on any show is the idea that fans can go back and watch the show again and see it in little places where the character is featured," she told Elle of the twist.

Her next major series role came when she was cast as Assistant State's Attorney Anna Valdez in both "Chicago P.D." and "Chicago Justice." As Barbaro explained to Moviefone, she couldn't remember ever being so nervous while auditioning for a role. "I was waking up every day throughout this audition process, and I knew that it was like the most important thing that had happened to me in my career yet, because this matters!" she said. "This matters to me, like physically, to get this opportunity." When she eventually did get the role she was, as she put it, "completely floored."

For Barbaro, the role offered the unique opportunity to learn from some of TV's greats, including Philip Winchester, Carl Weathers, Joelle Carter, and Jon Seda. "Getting to work with people who are at that level and watching how that goes can feel like a master class," she said to Soma Magazine.

After her stint on "Chicago Justice," Monica Barbaro secured the role of Lisa in ABC's "Splitting Up Together." "That was really goofy and fun," she told One Chicago Center. "I got to work the comedy angle, but also have a lot of fun and get really playful with it."

It was a real departure from her more serious role in "Chicago Justice." The sitcom followed former couple Lena (Jenna Fischer) and Martin (Oliver Hudson) as they navigated their divorce. As Lisa, Barbaro played a love interest of Martin, who later discovered she was pregnant with his child. If you saw the show, you may not have even recognized Barbaro as Lisa thanks to the big pair of glasses her character sported. You will, however, undoubtedly remember her playing a song on the ukulele during the blackout in the Season 2 finale. As one fan wrote on Facebook, "Monica is so, so great. I dare you not to love Lisa Apple."

Shortly after "Splitting Up Together, Monica Barbaro found herself in her first Netflix show. In 2018's "The Good Cop," she played Cora, a homicide detective. "I love the character," gushed Barbaro in her interview with One Chicago Center. "She's sharp-witted, determined, she has this party girl background [and] she's fun." The show may have been a detective show, but it was also a comedy. Luckily, her time on "Splitting Up Together" had helped her get in the comedic zone. "It loosened me up for 'Good Cop' in a way," she said.

The part also gave Barbaro a chance to play a character who shared her Italian and Mexican heritage. "They were nice enough to sort of bring in my own actual diversity," she said in a BUILD Series interview. "That was nice, I got to kind of put a piece of me in there."

As Cora, Barbaro soon won herself plenty of fans. As one reviewer noted for Decider, "She holds her own and leaves the audience wishing for more Cora." Meanwhile, Geek'd-Out praised the "perfect casting."

After appearing in a series of network TV shows, Monica Barbaro tried something a little different — an indie film In Ricky D'Ambroses' "The Cathedral," she played Lydia Orkin, the wife of Brian d'Arcy James' Richard and mother of Jesse, through whose eyes we watch the story unfold. The Hollywood Reporter described her performance as "pitch-perfect."

By the time Barbaro made the film, she had plenty of experience. In fact, she had just finished filming the "Top Gun" sequel and she didn't even have to audition for the role. "At that point [she] had just come off of 'Top Gun 2,'" said D'Ambrose to Moveable Feast. As such she "had resources [she] brought with [her]." In other words, he was able to simply back off and let her do her thing. "I was learning about acting in a way I hadn't before by working with these actors," he said.

The film is shown entirely through the perspective of the couple's son. For Barbaro, the film felt incredibly powerful. "I think it's so interesting in ... the mind's eye, how you remember those things, Ricky just has such a wonderful way of presenting how memory works," she said to Cherry Picks, adding, "That was something that I just got really excited by when I read the script." 

In 2022, Monica Barbaro appeared in her biggest project to date — "Top Gun: Maverick." Acting alongside Tom Cruise and Glen Powell, Barbaro played Phoenix, a fighter pilot. For the role, she actually learned how to fly a Cessna 172 Skyhawk for the role. As she told Town & Country, her ballet training, oddly enough, came in handy, as it had taught her "accountability." "I understand the hours it takes to make it look easy," she said. "It takes so much training to make it seem as if you have been doing it for years. My dance training taught me to be humble about what it takes." It also cultivated her "high pain tolerance" that proved to be useful, as she told Glamour.

After the film was released, Barbaro skyrocketed (no pun intended) to new levels of fame. Ultimately, it opened up plenty of new doors. "Now it feels like it's building and people are buzzing, my reps are getting really excited and have a lot more incoming calls," she said to Glamour UK. "We love incoming calls — what a relief!"

The film roles just kept coming for Monica Barbaro. In 2022, she played Peggy in the feature "I'm Charlie Walker." The movie followed the true story of a man who took on a racist oil company in San Francisco in 1971. The film was another small indie project from Miracle Media. As noted on the movie's Instagram account, Barbaro ended up being one of its biggest stars. "Monica took a chance on our indie film and for that we are always grateful," they wrote. In other words, this movie was pretty small, and more likely than not it has totally flown under your radar — unless you've already done a deep dive into Barbaro's filmography, that is.

"The film 'I'm Charlie Walker' is another good example of a project as a whole that really isn't that interesting, and Monica only has a couple scenes in it, but no one can look away when she's there," one Barbaro fan wrote about her performance in the film, adding, "her charisma and special energy that ensures you cannot forget her."

If you're a video game fan, you might actually know Monica Barbaro for her voice acting work. In 2023, she leant her voice to the game "Forspoken," playing the character Auden Keen. In the game, Auden appears in Cipal where her father studied the Break. Auden is a kind, likable character who is always willing to lend a helping hand. In fact, she helps Frey, the main character, break free from jail then sends her off to find some of her father's journals. She continues to help Frey on a mission to save Athia. It's a relatively small moment in the game, but it's also a memorable one.

If you haven't played "Forspoken," it's worth taking a look at a clip featuring Auden. Barbaro actually shows off her impeccable British accent in the game. We are seriously impressed.

After playing a lawyer, a detective, a mother, and a pilot, Monica Barbaro dove into a rom-com. In 2023, she starred as Sophie Wilder in "At Midnight," a romantic comedy about a famous actor (Barbaro) who falls for a hotel manager played by Diego Boneta. In order to keep their career plans on track, they agree to go on secret midnight dates.

For Barbaro, making a rom-com like "At Midnight" was a sort of "rite of passage" — something she knew she had to do sooner or later. "I just sort of assumed I would do one, and then there weren't that many as I was working in my 20s," she told Screen Rant. "There were, but not really in the same way that there are right now." She was thrilled when the opportunity finally came along — after all, she had been a huge fan of the genre as a child, citing "Roman Holiday," "The Philadelphia Story," and "Notting Hill" as favorites. And yes, she rewatched all of them to prepare. Talk about a homework assignment we'd be happy to take on.

Next up was the Netflix series "Fubar," in which Monica Barbaro played Emma, a CIA agent who gets into trouble on a mission and brings her dad, Luke, another agent, on board to help. And her dad was played by none other than action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger. As Barbaro told Variety, working with Schwarzenegger could not have been more fun. "He really likes a lot of jokes and pranks, and giving his friends a hard time," she said. "And so it was kind of perfect that we had this father-daughter dynamic, because we would just give each other s*** all day."

This project was yet another action series to add to the list. And once again, she used her dance training to help her capture her character's physicality. "I think there are actually more similarities than you would think. In ballet, there's such an attention to detail in literally every limb of your body and how it moves exactly," she said. "I think learning stunts and choreography and a character's physicality requires that same attention to detail."

Monica Barbaro's career hit another high point with 2024's "A Complete Unknown," the Bob Dylan biopic opposite former theater kid Timothée Chalamet. Once again, the project saw Barbaro taking on a huge responsibility — this time, the responsibility of playing real-life icon Joan Baez. "How audacious to pretend I'm as bold or as skilled as these people?" she said of her roles in "Top Gun" and "A Complete Unknown" to Town & Country. "How do I even try? I begin by honoring the individual. I embark on it the best as possible and with the utmost respect. It's not about imitating mannerisms. It's about their essence. We are telling their stories for a reason. To take them on is bold. You do it carefully and specifically."

Barbaro began by trying to emulate Baez's mannerisms and vocal intonations. Luckily, the real Joan Baez was apparently not too exacting about the performance. "She was really not fussed about the film, truly," the actor told The Guardian. "I think I was more concerned on her behalf than she was for herself."

The film was another huge blockbuster that sent her rocketing up in the ranks of Hollywood's top actors — and straight to Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner's Golden Globes table. "It's a bit overwhelming," Barbaro said of the film's press tour to USA Today. It's clear that after this film (and her run-in with the likes of Jenner) she won't be a complete unknown for long.