Monica Sotto is a Filipina-American Production Designer and Art Director, raised and based in Los Angeles, CA. Her passion for making art started in childhood. Monica grew up drawing and painting, hoping to one day work in cinema, maybe in special effects or behind a camera. Those creative aspirations led her to study at the University of Southern California as a Cinema-Production major (the school now known as the School of Cinematic Arts), where she discovered her passion for Art Direction, the perfect mixture of film and art.

After graduating from USC film school, Monica entered the entertainment business as a development intern, then became a full time talent agency assistant at Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann (later known as ICM, then CAA) and later moved with her department to Paradigm. Despite the excitement of talent representation, Monica missed the creative life on set, and missed making art. She took an offer to join the Art Department on the feature film THE EXPRESS (Universal Pictures), launching her first career as an Art Department Coordinator and experiencing her first “away” gig in Chicago, IL.

Since then, Monica lived and worked in Los Angeles, Boston, MA, Detroit, MI, Salt Lake City, UT, and Big Island, Hawaii as an Art Department Coordinator, Assistant Art Director, Art Director and finally as a Production Designer. She is a proud I.A.T.S.E. union member, and is currently a member of Local 800 as an Art Director/Production Designer at the Art Directors Guild, and she was formerly a member of Local 871 as an Art Department Coordinator.

In 2020, she received the honor of winning the award for Excellence in Production Design for a Variety, Reality or Event Special at the 24th Art Directors Guild Awards for her production design work on the television series Drunk History. That same year, Monica and her Art Department team received a nomination for the 72nd Primetime Emmys. Monica joined the Television Academy in 2017 when Drunk History Art Dept. team was nominated for the 69th Primetime Emmys that year.

Monica is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband and their two magical black cats.