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Entertainment August 24, 2017
Aubrey Plaza, if we Insta-stalk you will you be our best friend?
Photo via Instagram / @plazadeaubreyYou may recognize her as April Ludgate, the super sarcastic and disinterested “Parks and Recreation” character. However, Aubrey Plaza is so much more than the iconic TV role she played.
She is just as funny off-screen as she is on-screen. But comedy isn’t her only strong feature, she is also kind, resilient and not afraid to be herself. And that’s why we totally love her.
ENTITY compiled a list of five facts about Aubrey Plaza and explains how she continues to gain popularity and success in 2017.
Aubrey Plaza was born June 26, 1984 in Wilmington, Delaware. Her mother Bernadette is an attorney of Irish-English descent and her father David is a financial advisor of Puerto Rican descent. She also has two younger sisters, Renee and Natalie.
In fourth grade, the now 33-year-old actress started attending Ursuline Academy, an all-girls Catholic school. She stayed at the academy through high school and graduated in 2002.
While at Ursuline, Aubrey Plaza was student council president, but that didn’t keep her from playing some hilarious pranks on the faculty and other students.
Among these pranks, she created a mascot for her school by dressing in a red cape and mask and climbing the gym’s scaffolding during basketball games. She even followed her principal home one day for the sake of comedy. As part of the prank, she wrapped a large box around her, and every time her principal turned around, she masked her identity with the box. She also orchestrated a mustache day and mock sword fight.
“I was always interested in rocking the boat and making people laugh and doing weird things,” she told Delaware Today in 2012. “I think a Catholic all-girls school is a good setting for that.”
However, when it came to serious matters, Aubrey Plaza put the jokes aside. After 9/11, she helped plan a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims. In 2002, the Wilmington Lion’s Club named her “Teen of the Year.”
After graduating from Ursuline Academy, Aubrey Plaza attended NYU. She was part of the Tisch School of the Arts until she graduated in 2006.
However, in 2004, she suffered a stroke that left her temporarily paralyzed and unable to communicate. The incident almost ruined any chance of Aubrey Plaza becoming a famous actress.
“I had expressive aphasia, where I could understand what’s happening, but I couldn’t talk or communicate,” she told the Guardian in 2016. “Like, you could say something and I would know what you meant but I couldn’t express it or even write it. That was the weirdest part. When they gave me a piece of paper and a pen I just kept writing lines instead of words. But at least I could walk. When it first happened to me I was paralyzed, but I was so young that my brain healed itself really fast. I was really lucky in that way.”
Since then, she has fully recovered and has continued on to a successful career.
Bernadette Plaza decided to name her daughter Aubrey after the 1970s pop group, Bread, inspired her. Their song “Aubrey” has lyrics like, “And Aubrey was her name. I never knew her, but I loved her just the same. I loved her name, wish that I had found the way and the reasons that would make her stay.”
Bernadette described the song to Delaware Today as “mysterious and haunting.”
“It is very fitting for Aubrey,” Bernadette said. “It’s hard to put into words what makes her so special, but I always knew she would be.”
In a 2016 interview with the Advocate, the interviewer asked Aubrey Plaza about her popularity in the queer community and her experience with other women hitting on her.
Her answer may have shocked and excited some female fans.
“Oh, yeah. I don’t mind. 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,” she said.
In the past, Aubrey Plaza was linked to Michael Cera, but she has been dating director Jeff Baena since 2011.
“He’s a creative person and we understand each other on that level,” she told Cosmopolitan for Latinas in 2013. “When we’re together, we like hanging out at home. We’re happy having people over and playing Settlers of Catan or Battlestar Galactica. We’re kind of dorks.”
April Ludgate wasn’t the only character Aubrey Plaza hilariously brought to life.
Before her “Parks and Recreation” role, Aubrey Plaza was involved in the Wilmington Drama League throughout childhood. She then went on to perform improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. She also interned for Samba Post-Its and was an NBC page.
After starting on “Parks and Recreation” in 2009, she held roles in movies like “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” and “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.” She is also featured in multiple CollegeHumor sketches.
And in 2017, this silly celebrity is hotter than ever. Aubrey Plaza played Fernanda in the movie “The Little Hours” about emotionally unstable nuns in the Middle Ages. Her boyfriend, Jeff Baena wrote and directed the flick. She also starred alongside Elizabeth Olsen in “Ingrid Goes West,” where her character becomes obsessed with an Instagram model (Olsen) and becoming her best friend.
The Aubrey Plaza net worth is currently around $3 million.
Aubrey Plaza, you’re continuing to kill the game and we enjoy your talent and nerdy side. Keep doing your thing and we can’t wait to check out your latest movies!
