Tebogo Monnakgotla was born and raised in Uppsala. At the age of ten, Tebogo started to play the cello in the town music school. 1994 she started to study composing and cello-playing at Piteå college of music, in 1999 continuing her studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she finished her postgraduate diploma studies in 2006.

Tebogo Monnakgotla has composed mostly for orchestra and chamber-ensemble but has lately been focusing on opera, with a recent piece - Jean-Joseph - for the Royal Opera in Stockholm and the opera Zebran coming up in Vadstena July 2021. Monnakgotla has recently composed a saxophone concerto for Johannes Thorell commissioned by four Swedish orchestras.

​Tebogo Monnakgotla is especially fond of using poetry in her music and this has led to a longer co-operation with poet Li Li. She also worked with poetry by, Oliveira Silveira, late Malagasies poet Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo and others.