Aubrey Plaza

Aubrey Christina Plaza (born June 26, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, producer, and writer. She began her career performing improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. She starred as April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009–2015), and later featured in the FX drama series Legion (2017–2019).Plaza had her first leading film role in Safety Not Guaranteed (2012). She also appeared in the films Mystery Team (2009), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Life After Beth (2014), Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), The Little Hours and Ingrid Goes West (both 2017), An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018), Child's Play (2019), and Happiest Season and Black Bear (both 2020).

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 "my darling 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 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 of Irish and English descent. She has also stated that she has Taíno ancestry. According to a 23andMe DNA test, Plaza found that her genetic background was 30–34% Iberian, 30–31% Irish, 8–9.9% West African, 7% Native American and 0.6% Ashkenazi Jewish.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," and that 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.