Monica Denise Brown, (née Arnold; born October 24, 1980), simply known as Monica, is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and actress. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, she began performing as a child and became part of a traveling gospel choir at the age of ten. She rose to prominence after releasing her debut studio album Miss Thang in 1995. It went multiplatinum, while its first two singles "Don't Take It Personal" and "Before You Walk Out of My Life" made her the youngest recording act to ever have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the Billboard Top R&B Singles chart. In 1998, Monica's second album The Boy Is Mine earned her major international chart success. Pushed by its Grammy Award-winning number-one hit title track, a duet with singer Brandy, it spawned two further Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers, "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine", and established her position as one of the most successful of the urban R&B female vocalists to emerge in the mid to late-1990s.