Aubrey Plaza facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Aubrey Plaza
Plaza at WonderCon 2019
Born	Aubrey Christina Plaza (1984-06-26) June 26, 1984 (age 39) Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Education	New York University (BFA)
Occupation	Actress comedian writer producer
Years active	2004–present
Spouse(s)	Jeff Baena ​ (m. 2021)​

Aubrey Christina Plaza (born June 26, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She starred as April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009–2015), played Julie Powers in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023), and featured as the Shadow King and Lenny Busker in the FX superhero series Legion (2017–2019). In 2022, she starred in the second season of the HBO anthology series The White Lotus, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.

After beginning her career performing improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, Plaza had her first leading film role in Safety Not Guaranteed (2012). She has also appeared in the films Mystery Team (2009), Funny People (2009), The To Do List (2013), Life After Beth (2014), Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), Child's Play (2019), and Happiest Season (2020). Plaza has produced and starred in the films The Little Hours (2017), Ingrid Goes West (2017), Black Bear (2020), and Emily the Criminal (2022).

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 of Puerto Rican descent; her paternal grandfather Ismael was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and moved to the mainland US when he was 17 years old. Her mother is of Irish and English descent. She has also stated that she has Taíno ancestry.

Plaza has stated: "I'm half-Puerto Rican. But, yeah, I have a huge family and tons of cousins in Puerto Rico." 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.

Career

2004–2015: Beginnings and Parks and Recreation

Plaza at the Parks and Recreation premiere party in 2009

Plaza 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 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. She received universal praise throughout the entire show for her performance as the deadpan employee, 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 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. She won the award for Breakthrough Performance (Female) at the 2012 Young Hollywood Awards (YHA). During a 2012 shooting of an episode of Parks and Recreation at the White House, she met then-Vice President Joe Biden and stole his notes about her from his desk.

..... In 2013, she also had the starring role in the CBS Film The To Do List. In an impromptu attempt to promote this film, Plaza ran onto the stage at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards and grabbed Will Ferrell's award for "Comedic Genius", inspired by Kanye West's interruption of Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, all with a drink in hand while the film's name was written across her chest. Similar to West, this resulted in her ejection from the studio lot at which the ceremony was held.

At the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Plaza's film, Life After Beth, which was written and directed by her now-husband Jeff Baena, premiered. Plaza also voiced Grumpy Cat in the Lifetime Network's original movie Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever (2014).

Since 2016: Career expansion

Plaza at the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards

In 2016, Plaza starred in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates alongside Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick and Adam DeVine. Her role as the rebellious Tatiana earned her critical praise. ..... She also provided a guest voice for the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Mall Girl Pearl" with Betty White.

In 2016, she portrayed Cat Adams, a contract killer, first in Season 11 of the CBS television series Criminal Minds, and then again in Season 12 and 15. In 2017, Plaza both starred in and produced two films, The Little Hours and Ingrid Goes West. The latter premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and later earned the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Plaza starred as the social media obsessed fan of a celebrity played by Elizabeth Olsen. Variety film critic Peter Debruge praised Plaza's performance writing, "Plaza's tortured performance captures all of this, which is saying something for an actress whose blasé persona hinges on the fact that she can't be bothered: Nobody plays ambivalence better, and yet, Plaza allows herself to seem vulnerable here." In 2018, she starred in the indie comedy An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn.

Plaza starred as both Amahl Farouk / Shadow King and Lenny Busker in the FX series Legion from 2017 to 2019. In both 2019 and 2020, Plaza hosted the 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 2020, Plaza produced and starred in independent film Black Bear and starred in Happiest Season. In 2021, Plaza wrote a children's book, The Legend of the Christmas Witch, along with co-author Dan Murphy and illustrator Julia Iredale. Plaza produced and starred in the film Emily the Criminal, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. She also appears in the film Spin Me Round, which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in 2022.

In January 2022, it was announced that Plaza would star in the second season of the HBO series The White Lotus. Plaza played Harper, a lawyer vacationing in Sicily with her husband, Ethan, played by Will Sharpe. She received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards. On August 25, 2022, Little Demon premiered on FXX. The series stars Plaza (who is also an executive producer), with Danny DeVito and Lucy DeVito. On October 16, 2022, Plaza was given the Artist of Distinction Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival. In November 2022, Plaza was cast as witch Rio Vidal in the Disney+ series Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In 2023, Plaza received backlash for her participation in an ad for the dairy industry that mocked plant-based milk. On July 26 it was announced that she would be making her stage debut off-Broadway in the revival of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea opposite Christopher Abbott.

Personal life

Plaza and her husband Jeff Baena at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2017

Plaza has been in a relationship with writer and director Jeff Baena since 2011. In May 2021, Plaza revealed that she and Baena are married, referring to him as her husband in an Instagram post. In a 2016 interview with The Advocate, she stated: "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."

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

Filmography

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2006	Killswitch	Girl with Head Wound	Short film
	In Love	Julie	Short film
2009	Mystery Team	Kelly Peters
	Funny People	Daisy Danby
2010	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	Julie Powers
2011	Damsels in Distress	Debbie
	Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You	Jeanine Breemer
	10 Years	Olivia
2012	Safety Not Guaranteed	Darius Britt
	A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III	Marnie
2013	From Up on Poppy Hill	Sachiko Hirokouji	English dub
	She Said, She Said	Woman in Park	Short film
	Failure	Woman	Short film
	The End of Love	Aubrey
	The To Do List	Brandy Klark
	Charlie Countryman	Ashley
	Monsters University	Claire Wheeler	Voice
	Center Jenny	Monika Nark
2014	Life After Beth	Beth Slocum
	About Alex	Sarah
	Ned Rifle	Susan
	Playing It Cool	Mallory
	Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever	Grumpy Cat	Voice
2015	Addicted to Fresno	Kelly
	The Driftless Area	Jean
2016	Dirty Grandpa	Lenore
	Joshy	Jen
	The Pistol Shrimps	Herself	Documentary
	Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates	Tatiana Darcy
2017	Take My Nose... Please!	Herself	Documentary
	The Little Hours	Fernanda	Also producer
	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
	Happiest Season	Riley Johnson
2021	Best Sellers	Lucy Stanbridge
	King Knight	Pine Cone	Voice
2022	Emily the Criminal	Emily Benetto	Also producer
	Spin Me Round	Kat
2023	Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre	Sarah Fidel
2024	My Old ...	TBA	Post-production
TBA	Megalopolis	TBA	Post-production
	The Ark and the Aardvark	Brain	Voice; Post-production

Television

Theatre

Music videos

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Aubrey Plaza para niños