Monet Hurst-Mendoza

Monet Hurst-Mendoza is an NYC-based playwright and TV writer from Los Angeles, CA. Her plays have been developed with The Alley Theatre, WP Theater, Sol Project, Latinx Playwrights Circle, Outside In Theatre, Rising Circle Theater Collective, Astoria Performing Arts Center, Westport Country Playhouse and Long Wharf Theatre, among others. She is an alumna of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, the R&D Group at The Civilians, Fresh Ground Pepper’s Playground Playgroup, WP Theater’s Playwrights Lab and the Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists. Monet has been an artist-in-residence at New Harmony Project, Peacedale Global Arts, The Watermill Center, MacDowell, Millay Arts, La MaMa Umbria, Stillwright, The MITTEN Lab and SPACE on Ryder Farm. Awards: NYSCA grantee, Helen Merrill Award and Parity Productions’ Parity Development Award. Notably, her work appeared on the 2019 Kilroys List and 50 Playwrights Project’s listings for Best Unproduced Latinx Plays and Latinx Plays for College Theatres. Recognized by Remezcla as one of the “8 Most Exciting Latino Playwrights Making Work Right Now,” Monet was also recently named one of Broadway Women’s Fund’s 2026 Women to Watch.

Monet made her mark in television as a writer and producer for seasons 21-24 of Law & Order: SVU, with co-written episodes earning multiple Imagen Awards nominations – and winning three – celebrating positive representations of Latinos in media. Her work also garnered a nomination for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Teleplay. She is a graduate of the 2025 WGAE Showrunner Academy.
As an artist-activist, Monet was a member of The Kilroys’ second cohort, helping to create tools and initiatives that uplifted the work of women and TGNC+ playwrights; she also was a Producing Artistic Leader at Rising Circle Theater Collective, where she helped develop INKtank/PlayRISE, a developmental writers’ lab, and a new works festival for emerging playwrights of color. As an educator, Monet is an adjunct instructor in playwriting at her alma mater, Marymount Manhattan College, and has guest lectured at the University of Delaware, Fordham, Columbia and Harvard. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and WGAE.