Aubrey Plaza

Aubrey Plaza

Plaza at the 2012 Time 100
Birth name Aubrey Christina Plaza
Born June 26, 1984
Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Medium Stand-up, television, film
Alma mater Tisch School of Arts
Years active 2004–present
Genres Deadpan, improvisational comedy
Website aubreyplaza.tumblr.com

Aubrey Christina Plaza[1] (born June 26, 1984),[2] is an American actress and comedian known for her deadpan style. She portrayed 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.[3][4][5] She has two younger sisters, Renee and Natalie,[3] the latter of whom she used as inspiration for her character April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation.[6]

Plaza was named after the song "Aubrey" by Bread.[3][7] Her father is Puerto Rican and her mother is of Irish and English descent.[3][8] 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."[6] She participated in productions with the Wilmington Drama League.[3]

Plaza graduated from Ursuline Academy in 2002, and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2006.[3] While at NYU in 2004, Plaza suffered a stroke that caused temporary paralysis and expressive aphasia, but she has fully recovered.[3][9]

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".[10] She also worked as an NBC page.[11] She served as a director's assistant to writer/producer/director Bennett Davlin during the making of his award-winning short film, TC3.[11]

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.[12]

Plaza at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010

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 played 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 and in 2014 she was in Cassorla's "Bona Fide" video where she also made her saxophone playing debut.

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".[13]

At the 2013 MTV Movie Awards, Plaza "jumped onstage and tried to wrestle the (Golden Popcorn Award) 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.[14]

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.[15]

On September 17, 2014, Lifetime Network announced that Plaza would do the speaking voice of Grumpy Cat in their upcoming original movie Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever.[16] The film premiered on November 29, 2014 and received generally negative reviews.

Personal life

As of 2011, Plaza is dating writer/director Jeff Baena.[15]

Filmography

Film

Year Film Role Notes
2006 Killswitch Girl with Head Wound Short film
2006 In Love Julie Short film
2009 Mystery Team Kelly
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 Real Estate Agent
2012 Safety Not Guaranteed Darius Britt ALMA Award for Favorite Movie Actress Comedy/Musical[17]
Young Hollywood Award for Breakthrough Performance[18]
Nominated—Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Performance[19]
Nominated—St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress[20]
2012 A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III Marnie[21]
2012 10 Years Olivia
2013 From Up on Poppy Hill Sachiko Hirokouji (voice) English dub
2013 She Said, She Said Woman in Park Short film
2013 Failure Woman Short film
2013 The End of Love Herself Cameo
2013 The To Do List Brandy Klark
2013 Charlie Countryman Ex-Girlfriend
2013 Monsters University Claire Wheeler (voice)[22]
2014 Life After Beth Beth Slocum[23]
2014 About Alex Sarah[24]
2014 Ned Rifle Susan[25]
2014 Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever Grumpy Cat (voice) Television film
2015 Playing It Cool Mallory [26]
2015 The Driftless Area Jean
2015 Fresno
2016 Dirty Grandpa Lenore
2016 Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2006 30 Rock NBC page Episode: "Tracy Does Conan"
2009–2015 Parks and Recreation April Ludgate 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 2 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"
2014 Welcome to Sweden Herself 5 episodes
2015 Golan the Insatiable Dylan Beekler (voice)

Web

Year Title Role Notes
2007 Jeannie Tate Show, TheThe Jeannie Tate Show Tina Tate 6 episodes
2008 Keith Powell Directs a Play Stephanie 4 episodes
2008 Mayne Street Robin Gibney 6 episodes
2012 "Hollywood Cemetery Forever Sings" Girl Music video for Father John Misty[27]
2013 Daria: The Movie Daria Short film[28]
2013 "Rouse Yourself" Girl Music video for JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound [29]

References

  1. ↑ Plaza, Aubrey (March 1, 2012). "Aubrey Plaza Finally Confronts Her Multiple Personalities". Bullett Magazine.
  2. ↑ Olsen, Mark (August 3, 2009). "Aubrey Plaza: Funny person". Los Angeles Times. - interview lists her as 25
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 John Micklos Jr. (February 16, 2012). "Aubrey Plaza of NBC’s Parks and Recreation: Wilmington Native Is Building a Buzz in Hollywood". Delaware Today.
  4. ↑ Cormier, Ryan (January 15, 2010). "From Wilmy to Hollywood". Delaware Online. The News Journal.
  5. ↑ Cormier, Ryan (January 17, 2010). "Hey, aren't you that funny girl?". The News Journal. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Herrera, Monica (April 9, 2009). "Parks & Recreation star Aubrey Plaza explains why she's so hot right now". Latina.
  7. ↑ "Tracklist: Aubrey Plaza Rocks the Boat - BlackBook". Blackbookmag.com. March 11, 2012. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  8. ↑ Lee Hernández (June 11, 2009). "This girl's no slouch". Nydailynews.com. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  9. ↑ Letterman, David (August 31, 2011), interview
  10. ↑ Piepers, David (March 12, 2014). "Five interns who made it to the top". Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Aubrey Plaza". NBC. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  12. ↑ "Terrible Decisions with Ben Schwartz from Eric Appel, Ben Schwartz, and Aubrey Plaza". Funnyordie.com. September 27, 2009. Archived from the original on 1 January 2011. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  13. ↑ Thompson, Gary (June 15, 2012). "Aubrey Plaza shines in ‘Safety Not Guaranteed'". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved July 6, 2012. It's too early to say if Plaza's an actress, since no one's asked her to do anything other than be the pretty slacker with the bored posture and world- weary intonation . But she has an unusual kind of beauty (anglo-Irish, Latina) that the camera loves to explore, and when she does make the hyperspace jump to sincerity and initiative, the results are compelling.
  14. ↑ Vena, Jocelyn (April 14, 2013). "Aubrey Plaza asked to leave MTV Movie Awards after Will Ferrell stage crash". MTV News. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "You'll Never Guess Aubrey Plaza's Kinky On-Set Ritual!". In the Mixx. October 17, 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2014.
  16. ↑ Blake, Emily (September 17, 2014). "Aubrey Plaza will be the voice of Grumpy Cat in Lifetime movie". Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  17. ↑ Ferrer, Miguel (September 21, 2012). "ALMA Awards 2012: Winners And Show Highlights (VIDEO, PHOTOS)". The Huffington Post. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  18. ↑ Hollywood Life Staff (June 18, 2012). "Parks & Recreations Star Aubrey Plaza Hilariously Disses Old People at Young Hollywood Awards". Hollywood Life. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  19. ↑ Scott, Mike (October 18, 2012). "Gotham Awards: 'Beasts' snubbed for best picture, Mark Duplass double-dips as noms unveiled". NOLA.com. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  20. ↑ Tapley, Kristopher (December 11, 2012). "Django Unchained lands eight St. Louis film critics nods". Hitfix.com. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  21. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (October 5, 2011). "Aubrey Plaza joins cast of 'Charlie Swan'". Variety.
  22. ↑ Gallagher, Brian (April 15, 2013). "Monsters University Fraternity and Sorority Gallery". Movieweb.com.
  23. ↑ McNary, Dave; Setoodeth, Ramin (January 24, 2014). "Sundance: Aubrey Plaza's 'Life After Beth' Picked Up by A24, DirecTV". Variety. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  24. ↑ Highfill, Samantha (April 15, 2014). "Tribeca: Aubrey Plaza, Max Greenfield bond in 'About Alex'". Entertainment Weekly. Inside Movies (blog). Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  25. ↑ McNary, Dave (March 13, 2014). "Aubrey Plaza Joins Hal Hartley's 'Ned Rifle' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  26. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (October 2, 2012). "Anthony Mackie, Aubrey Plaza eye 'Splintered Thing'". Variety. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  27. ↑ Father John Misty (January 26, 2012). "Father John Misty - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings [OFFICIAL VIDEO]". Youtube.com. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  28. ↑ CH Staff (July 24, 2013). "Daria Movie Trailer (with Aubrey Plaza) - CollegeHumor Video". Collegehumor.com. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  29. ↑ JCBrooksVEVO (June 21, 2013). "Rouse Yourself - JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound". https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0wQVQ_td_ls13GYt0hsnw. Retrieved March 7, 2015.

External links

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