Talene Monahon

Talene Monahon is an Armenian-American actress and playwright.

Her play Meet the Cartozians was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Early life Monahon was born in Boston and grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts. She is a 2013 graduate of Dartmouth College.

Monahon was a child actor in regional and amateur productions in the Boston area. and had its premier production at Manhattan's 59E59 Theaters in January 2020.

Monahon began researching historical reenactment in 2015, first interviewing Revolutionary War reenactors in Massachusetts and New York, then interviewing Civil War reenacters and performance artist Dread Scott, who produced a 2017 reenactment of the 1811 German Coast uprising. Monahon's play is created entirely from the words of her politically, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse interviewees, whose views of their hobby evolve over the years during which the interviews took place. The production received critical acclaim, with The New York Times calling it "captivating" and TheatreMania praising it as "genuinely great."

The play was nominated for three Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, winning for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, and was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Acting Monahon has performed on stage in New York and other cities. New York Times theater critic Laura Collins-Hughes describes Monahon as playing Blanche Sartorious in George Bernard Shaw's Widowers' Houses "with such take-no-prisoners ferocity that she awakened the sleeping man in front of me during a fight scene."

Monahon has a handful of television acting credits, most recently appearing as Assistant District Attorney Conway in the CBS legal drama Bull.

Plays Source: How to Load a Musket (2020) Jane Anger (2022) The Good John Proctor (2023) Meet the Cartozians (2025) Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret (2027)

Acting- Stage Credits

Awards and nominations YearAwardCategoryWorkResultRef.2026Pulitzer PrizeDramaMeet the Cartozians Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Play Outer Critics Circle AwardOutstanding New Off-Broadway Play