Aubrey Christina Plaza is an American actress and comedian who has gained popularity with
her deadpan-style comedy.
She portrays April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation.
After appearing in key supporting roles in several films, Plaza had her first leading
role in the 2012 comedy Safety Not Guaranteed.
Plaza began her career as an intern.
After performing improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, she
appeared in the Web series The Jeannie Tate Show.
She later appeared in films such as Funny People and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Early life Plaza was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the
daughter of Bernadette, an attorney, and David Plaza, a financial advisor.
She has two younger sisters, Renee and Natalie, the latter of whom she uses as inspiration
for her character April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation.
Plaza was named after the song "Aubrey" by Bread.
Her father is Puerto Rican and her mother is of Irish and English descent.
Plaza has stated: "I was like the only diverse kid in my high school, and I'm half-Puerto
Rican.
But yeah, I have a huge family and tons of cousins in Puerto Rico."
She participated in productions with the Wilmington Drama League.
Plaza graduated from Ursuline Academy in 2002, and New York University's Tisch School of
the Arts in 2006.
While at NYU in 2004, Plaza suffered a stroke that caused temporary paralysis and expressive
aphasia, but she has fully recovered.
Career Plaza has said that she has had many internships,
including an "intern[ship] for Samba Post-Its"; one day, one of her jobs at Samba Post-Its
was to "literally wallpaper a bathroom with Post-Its".
She also worked as an NBC page.
She served as a director's assistant to writerdirector Bennett Davlin during the making of his award-winning
short film, TC3.
Plaza has performed improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater since
2004.
She also performed stand-up and has appeared at the Laugh Factory and The Improv.
In 2008, she participated in the Improv Everywhere prank "Mobile Desktop", in which she and two
other people brought desktop PCs, including a CRT monitor, tower computer, keyboard and
mouse into a Starbucks and used them as people use laptops there.
Plaza starred in the online series The Jeannie Tate Show, and stars as Robin Gibney in ESPN's
Mayne Street.
She also appeared in the first episode of "Terrible Decisions with Ben Schwartz" on
Funny or Die.
She played Seth Rogen's love interest, Daisy, in 2009's Funny People directed by Judd Apatow.
She also had roles in the comedy films Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Derrick Comedy's
Mystery Team, which debuted at 2009 Sundance.
She appeared in a CollegeHumor short alongside Jason Bateman and Will Arnett.
She plays April Ludgate, the deadpan employee in Parks and Recreation, and has a recurring
role as "the Princess" in the comedic sci-fi web series Troopers on CollegeHumor.
On March 12, 2010, Plaza performed at A Night of 140 Tweets: A Celebrity Tweetathon for
Haiti, produced by Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Ben Stiller, and Mike Rosenstein, at the Upright
Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles.
In 2011, she made a guest appearance in Portlandia.
Plaza appeared as a guest judge during a roast segment on The Next Food Network Star in 2011.
She appeared in Episode 199 of the WTF with Marc Maron podcast.
In early 2012, she was featured in Father John Misty's music video for the song "Hollywood
Forever Cemetery Sings" from the album Fear Fun.
In the summer of 2012, Plaza earned her first starring role in a major film, alongside Mark
Duplass, in the comedy, Safety Not Guaranteed.
In the film, Plaza plays Darius, a jaded intern who answers a curious want ad "seeking a companion
for a time travelling adventure".
Her performance in the film was critically acclaimed, and Gary Thompson of the Philadelphia
Inquirer questions whether this role is out of her usual "pretty slacker" range but finds
her performance "compelling".
At the 2013 MTV Movie Awards, Plaza "jumped onstage and tried to wrestle the statue from
Will Ferrell's hand" during his acceptance speech; Ferrell integrated the interaction
into his monologue as a planned moment, but the unscripted interruption led to Plaza's
ejection from the event.
At the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in January 2014, Plaza's film, Life After Beth, which
was written and directed by her boyfriend Jeff Baena, premiered.
Personal life As of January 2014, Plaza was dating writer/director
Jeff Baena.
Filmography Film
Television Web
References
External links Aubrey Plaza at the Internet Movie Database
Aubrey Plaza on Twitter Aubrey Plaza Videos - Plaza's video website
[1] - Profile from Parks and Recreation Troopers web series