She started her career in show business playing the title role of Jennifer Montereal in the hit GMA Network family drama Munting Heredera that aired for more than a year.

[4][5] She then portrayed the role of Fatima Salvador, a blind girl with a golden heart who is an offspring of a mortal and a manananggal, in the same network's fantaserye Aso ni San Roque.

[6] Mona Alawi is the youngest of four siblings born to a Filipino mother, Fatima Marbella, and a Moroccan father, Samier Al-Alawi.

[7] Alawi suffers from Type 1 diabetes, a disease she was diagnosed with in 2011, the year she started her career in show business.

As a result, she has to maintain a strict daily regimen of insulin self-injections and avoiding foods and drinks rich in sugar and carbohydrates.