Mona Hammond came to England in 1959 from Jamaica on a Government grant to study for three months. She studied at the City Literary Institute for a year and then trained at RADA. Hammond entered RADA on a scholarship and graduated in 1964. Her first Shakespeare role was Wife of Mbeth (Lady Macbeth) in The Black Macbeth. In the programme for that production, she writes: "Mona has always been interested in Shakespeare, and while she was at RADA she had a longing to use her two years of training in a Shakespearean play. For her, The Black Macbeth is a dream come true." Hammond is a co-founder of Talawa Theatre Company and received an OBE for services to drama in 2005.