Aubrey Plaza

Aubrey Christina Plaza (born June 26, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She began her career performing improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. She is best known for her starring role as April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009–2015). She later starred in the FX drama series Legion (2017–2019).

Plaza had her first leading film role in Safety Not Guaranteed (2012). She also starred in the films Mystery Team (2009), Funny People (2009), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Monsters University (2013), Life After Beth (2014), Dirty Grandpa (2016), Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), The Little Hours (2017), Ingrid Goes West (2017), An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018), Child’s Play (2019), Happiest Season (2020), and Black Bear (2020).

Early life and education

Plaza was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to Bernadette, an attorney, and David Plaza, a financial advisor. She has two younger sisters, Renee and Natalie.

Plaza was named after the song “Aubrey” by Bread. Her father is Puerto Rican and her mother is Irish. She has stated that she has Taíno ancestry. 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.”

Plaza has stated she grew up “very Catholic in a very Catholic household”. She graduated from Ursuline Academy, an all-girls Catholic school, in 2002. In high school she was student council president and participated in productions with the Wilmington Drama League. She studied film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 2006.

Plaza suffered a stroke when she was 20 years old that caused temporary paralysis and expressive aphasia. A couple of years later, she had a transient ischemic attack while on the set of Parks and Recreation. 

Career

2006–2015: Beginnings and Parks and Recreation

Plaza has had many internships, and worked as an NBC page. 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.

Plaza starred in the online series The Jeannie Tate Show, and starred as Robin Gibney in ESPN’s Mayne Street. She 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 appeared in 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 played April Ludgate in Parks and Recreation from 2009 to 2015. For her performance as the deadpan employee, she received universal praise throughout the entire show, being referred to as one of the show’s breakout characters.

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 appeared on 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. She also had a recurring role as “the Princess” in the comedic sci-fi web series Troopers on CollegeHumor.

In 2012, she was featured in Father John Misty’s music video for the song “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” from the album Fear Fun and in 2014 she was in Cassorla’s “Bona Fide” video where she also made her saxophone-playing debut.

In 2012, Plaza earned her first starring role in a major film, alongside Mark Duplass, in the comedy, Safety Not Guaranteed. Plaza played Darius, a jaded intern who answers a curious want ad “seeking a companion for a time traveling adventure”. Her performance in the film was critically acclaimed, and Gary Thompson of The Philadelphia Inquirer questioned whether this role was out of her usual “pretty slacker” range but found her performance “compelling”.

She won the award for Breakthrough Performance (Female) at the 2012 Young Hollywood Awards (YHA).

In 2013, she had the leading female role as Sacagawea in Drunk History episode “Nashville” in the segment on Lewis and Clark Expedition.

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. Plaza also voiced Grumpy Cat in the Lifetime Network’s original movie Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (2014).

2016–present: Legion and further film roles

She starred in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates alongside Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick and Adam DeVine. The film was released on July 8, 2016. Her role as the rebellious Tatiana earned her critical praise.

In 2016, she was a guest star on HarmonQuest, as a gnome named “Hawaiian Coffee” and portrayed Aaron Burr in the “Hamilton” episode of Drunk History.

She also had the only speaking line in a commercial for the Apple iPhone 6s, demonstrating “I’m peeking my flight. I’m not peeking my flight. I’m peeking my . . . wait, I missed my flight.”

She first played the role of Cat Adams, a contract killer, in Season 11 of the CBS television show Criminal Minds. She returned to the role in Seasons 12 and 15.

In 2017, Plaza both starred in and produced two films, The Little Hours and Ingrid Goes West. It was announced that she would star in indie comedy An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn in 2018.

Plaza starred as both Amahl Farouk / Shadow King and Lenny Busker in the FX series Legion from 2017 to 2019. On February 23, 2019, Plaza hosted the 34th Independent Spirit Awards.

In 2019, she starred in Child’s Play, a reboot of the 1988 film, as Karen Barclay, Andy’s mother who brings home a killer doll, Chucky.

In February 2020, Plaza starred alongside Bill Murray in a short parody of Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse in order to promote the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards.

Plaza is set to produce and star in the Netflix comedy film Hope.

Personal life

Plaza has been in a relationship with writer and director Jeff Baena since 2011. They live together in Los Angeles, California, and work together often.

In 2016, Plaza mentioned in an interview to The Advocate that: “I know I have an androgynous thing going on, and there’s something masculine about my energy. Girls are into me — that’s no secret. Hey, I’m into them too. I fall in love with girls and guys. I can’t help it.”

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Refs
2006	Killswitch	Girl with Head Wound	Short film
2006	In Love	Julie	Short film
2009	Mystery Team	Kelly Peters
2009	Funny People	Daisy Danby
2010	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	Julie Powers
2011	Damsels in Distress	Debbie
2011	Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You	Jeanine Breemer
2011	10 Years	Olivia
2012	Safety Not Guaranteed	Darius Britt
2012	A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III	Marnie
2013	From Up on Poppy Hill	Sachiko Hirokouji	English dub
2013	She Said, She Said	Woman in Park	Short film
2013	Failure	Woman	Short film
2013	The End of Love	Aubrey
2013	The To Do List	Brandy Klark
2013	Charlie Countryman	Ashley
2013	Monsters University	Claire Wheeler (voice)
2013	Center Jenny	Monika Nark
2014	Life After Beth	Beth Slocum
2014	About Alex	Sarah
2014	Ned Rifle	Susan
2014	Playing It Cool	Mallory
2014	Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever	Grumpy Cat (voice)
2015	Addicted to Fresno	Kelly
2015	The Driftless Area	Jean
2016	Dirty Grandpa	Lenore
2016	Joshy	Jen
2016	The Pistol Shrimps	Herself	Documentary
2016	Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates	Tatiana Darcy
2017	Take My Nose… Please!	Herself	Documentary
2017	The Little Hours	Fernanda	Also producer
2017	Ingrid Goes West	Ingrid Thorburn	Also producer
2018	An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn	Lulu Danger
2019	Child’s Play	Karen Barclay
2020	Black Bear	Allison	Also producer Hollywood Critics Association Award for Acting Achievement (2021) Nominated—San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Film (2021) Nominated—San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress (2021)
2020	Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia	TBA
2020	Happiest Season	Riley Johnson
2021	Best Sellers	Lucy Stanbridge	Post-production
TBA	King Knight	Pine Cone (voice)	Post-production
TBA	The Ark and the Aardvark	Brain (voice)	Post-production
TBA	Five Eyes	TBA	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	30 Rock	NBC Page	Episode: “Tracy Does Conan”
2009–2015, 2020	Parks and Recreation	April Ludgate	125 episodes Nominated—ALMA Award for Favorite TV Actress—Supporting Role (2011) Nominated—ALMA Award for Favorite TV Actress—Leading Role In A Comedy (2012) Nominated—Imagen Award for Best Supporting Actress—Television (2010, 2012–2013)
2011	Portlandia	Beth / Bookstore Customer	3 episodes
2012	NTSF:SD:SUV::	The Rememberer	Episode: “Wasila Hills Cop”
2013–2014	The Legend of Korra	Eska (voice)	12 episodes
2013	Drunk History	Sacagawea	Episode: “Nashville”
2013	Maron	Herself	Episode: “Jen Moves to L.A.”
2014–2015	Welcome to Sweden	Herself	6 episodes
2015	Golan the Insatiable	Dylan Beekler (voice)	6 episodes
2015	Castle	Lucy (voice)	Uncredited 4 episodes
2016	SpongeBob SquarePants	Nocturna (voice)	Episode: “Mall Girl Pearl”
2016	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Lady Aubrey / Herself	Episode: “Aubrey Plaza Wears a Velvet Off-the-Shoulder Gown With Flowers in Her Hair”
2016	RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars	Herself / Guest Judge	Episode: “Family That Drags Together”
2016	Drunk History	Aaron Burr	Episode: “Hamilton”
2016	HarmonQuest	Hawaiian Coffee	Episode: “Manoa Prison Hole”
2016–2020	Criminal Minds	Cat Adams	4 episodes
2017–2019	Legion	Amahl Farouk / Shadow King Lenny Busker	27 episodes Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Villain (2018) Nominated—Imagen Award for Best Actress—Television (2018)
2017	Easy	Lindsay	Episode: “Package Thief”
2019	34th Independent Spirit Awards	Herself (host)	Television special
2019	Drunk History	Cleopatra	Episode: “Bad Blood”
2019–2020	Crank Yankers	Bernadette (voice)	2 episodes
2020	35th Independent Spirit Awards	Herself (host)	Television special
2020	Muppets Now	Herself	Episode: “Sleep Mode”
2020	Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine	Ashley	Television special

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist(s)	Role	Notes
2012	“Hollywood Cemetery Forever Sings”	Father John Misty	Girl
2013	“Rouse Yourself”	JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound	Girl
2014	“Bona Fide”	Cassorla	Woman in Boat