At 36, Barbaro is enjoying a career breakthrough, with an Oscar nomination, ambitious new projects and a growing fashion profile. Her relationship with fellow actor Andrew Garfield has also drawn attention to her rise.
Success may have taken time, but Monica Barbaro has established herself as one of Hollywood’s most promising talents. After years of searching for her breakthrough, the Californian actress first attracted widespread attention as a fighter pilot in Top Gun: Maverick. She then earned industry acclaim for playing Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown, a performance that secured her an Academy Award nomination.
With high-profile projects on the horizon, including the much-anticipated Artificial, a relationship with Andrew Garfield and a personal style that combines sophistication with effortless elegance, Barbaro has become a name to watch both on and off screen.
From ballet classes to the big screen
Acting was not part of Barbaro’s earliest ambitions. Her mother, a professional dancer, enrolled all three of her children in ballet classes. Although small school theatre productions helped her discover her passion for acting, family encouragement initially led her to concentrate on dance.
She subsequently joined the dance programme at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, one of the country’s leading performing arts institutions, and explored acting through elective courses.
Now that her teenage ambition of becoming an actress has been realised, Barbaro credits dance with helping her develop a distinctive approach to her craft.
“Dance gave me a completely different way into character. People reveal themselves through their body language,” she said.
Learning to fly with Tom Cruise
Barbaro’s breakthrough came with Top Gun: Maverick, in which she played a military pilot in her first major big-budget Hollywood production.
To prepare for the role, she completed more than 40 hours of flight time. She also filmed scenes aboard a two-seat F/A-18, experiencing forces of up to eight Gs, and went on to earn her pilot’s licence.
The preparation reflected the demanding standards set by Tom Cruise, who has become an important mentor to the actress.
“He’ll see a person, see their potential and just bring out the best in them,” Barbaro said of her co-star.
The performance that earned an Oscar nomination
Her portrayal of Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet, cemented Barbaro’s position as one of Hollywood’s most exciting emerging talents.
Although she had no guitar experience when she secured the role, she learned to sing and play the instrument for the film. Months of intensive preparation helped produce one of its standout performances, earning her first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress.
Chalamet later explained that the filmmakers wanted an actress with gravity and quiet power, someone who could hold her own opposite his portrayal of Dylan and even intimidate him slightly.
The award ultimately went to Zoe Saldaña for Emilia Pérez, but the nomination marked a turning point in Barbaro’s career, establishing her as more than a promising newcomer.
A romance in the public eye
As her professional profile grew during the awards season surrounding the Oscars, Barbaro also found herself at the centre of growing interest in her personal life.
In January 2025, entertainment media began reporting rumours of a relationship with Andrew Garfield, known for films including The Social Network. The pair subsequently made several public appearances together, fuelling speculation while remaining protective of their privacy.
Garfield has spoken warmly about Barbaro’s abilities, describing her as a “supremely talented” actress.
“I think she is truly incredible,” he said, adding that he could say much more about her but would leave it there.
In July 2025, the couple made their first official public appearance together at the Wimbledon Championships in London. They embraced the tournament’s traditional style with coordinated all-white outfits, with Barbaro wearing Ralph Lauren.
Working alongside Andrew Garfield
Their relationship also developed against the backdrop of a shared professional project. Both actors appear in Artificial, the highly anticipated film directed by Luca Guadagnino, known for Call Me by Your Name.
The film explores the story of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and the turbulent period surrounding the brief removal and subsequent reinstatement of its chief executive, Sam Altman, played by Garfield.
Barbaro portrays Mira Murati, OpenAI’s former chief technology officer, who became one of the most prominent figures in the artificial intelligence industry.
Speaking about her co-star, Barbaro called Garfield one of the finest actors of their generation. She said she had learned from his approach to the material and the process of developing a character, describing herself as fortunate to observe his work first-hand.
Working alongside him also pushed her to raise her own standards.
“Oh shit, I really have to step up my game and make sure I’m a proper, legitimate scene partner,” she recalled thinking.
Finding her place in Hollywood
Barbaro’s path has not always been straightforward. The daughter of an Italian American father and a mother of Mexican, English and German descent, she has spoken about the difficulties of navigating an industry that often tries to place actors within rigid ethnic categories.
She has described feeling pressured to emphasise her Latina heritage in ways that did not feel authentic, while also worrying about the risk of making herself less distinctive to avoid offending others.
As a child, she experienced racist taunts. Later, she sometimes lost acting opportunities because she was considered not “ethnic enough”.
Rather than choosing one side of her background over another, Barbaro has embraced the complexity of her identity.
“I don’t belong in either,” she has said of the two sides of her parentage, “but I do belong in this mixed territory.”
Her experience reflects a broader challenge for actors whose identities do not fit neatly into the categories through which the entertainment industry has traditionally viewed its talent.
Independence, ambition and romance
Barbaro has described herself as “a romantic and a workaholic”, while acknowledging that her commitment to independence has shaped her personal life.
In an interview with InStyle, she reflected on the balance between protecting her autonomy and allowing herself to become more open to relationships.
“I’ve never given my life over to it, which, as a woman, I’m quite proud of,” she said.
But she also recognised another side to that independence: the possibility of becoming so self-reliant that she begins to question whether she has been protecting herself from emotional vulnerability.
“I’m definitely shifting some of that perspective now,” she added.
A decade of persistence before the breakthrough
After graduating from university, Barbaro returned to her hometown of San Francisco without steady work or significant savings. For nearly a decade, she balanced small television roles with commercial work, building a career without the rapid success enjoyed by some younger performers.
Her fortunes changed in 2022, when Top Gun: Maverick brought her to a much wider audience. That year, her growing profile also earned her an invitation to Vanity Fair’s Oscars after-party, where she wore a design by Elie Saab.
The trajectory of her career has been less a story of overnight success than one of persistence, preparation and gradually finding the right opportunities.
Setting boundaries on screen
Barbaro has also been candid about her reluctance to use her appearance as a selling point or to perform nudity without a clear narrative purpose.
In an interview with the US edition of InStyle, she recalled losing a role early in her career because she refused to appear topless. At the time, she was working as a background performer in a small, non-speaking part and could see no reason for the scene to require nudity.
She was eventually rehired on her own terms, with her shirt buttoned up.
“I’ve not gotten naked in anything I’ve done because I haven’t worked on something where that would be a necessity to the story,” she said.
Her comments reflect a deliberate approach to professional boundaries, even at moments when refusing a request could mean losing work.
An evolving fashion identity
Alongside her growing reputation as an actress, Barbaro has developed a distinctive fashion profile. Her recent appearances combine contemporary silhouettes with understated elegance, favouring looks that appear polished without feeling overly formal.
One example was an oversized white suit paired with a Jacquemus handbag, worn while she was photographed walking through New York last winter.
As her career continues to expand, Barbaro’s appeal increasingly extends beyond her performances. Her trajectory brings together a dancer’s physical awareness, a willingness to take on demanding roles and a carefully considered approach to public life.
After years of building her career away from the spotlight, she is now navigating the opportunities and scrutiny that come with becoming a Hollywood star.
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