Aubrey Plaza

Aubrey Plaza was born on June 26, 1984, in Wilmington, Delaware. The daughter of a financial advisor and an attorney, she had her first contact with the arts through local community theater, where she discovered her talent for making audiences laugh in comedic roles. At age 20, she faced a critical milestone when she suffered a stroke that caused temporary paralysis and expressive aphasia. Demonstrating immense resilience, she made a full recovery and moved to New York City, where she graduated with a film production degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and worked as a backstage intern for the renowned comedy show Saturday Night Live.

Stardom on American television arrived in 2009 when she secured the role of April Ludgate in the celebrated mockumentary sitcom Parks and Recreation. Her iconic deadpan delivery and unique comedic timing transformed the apathetic, sarcastic character into a pop culture phenomenon. During and shortly after the show's conclusion in 2015, Plaza used this massive platform to expand her artistic portfolio into independent cinema, establishing her brand by playing eccentric, quirky, and deeply complex individuals across both comedy and drama.

Her career reached a new level of widespread praise when she transitioned into producing her own films. She starred in and produced the hit indie satire Ingrid Goes West (2017), which won her a prestigious Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and later received glowing reviews for the tense crime drama Emily the Criminal (2022). Her definitive transition into major dramatic prestige television occurred with her role as Harper Spiller in the second season of HBO's smash hit The White Lotus (2022), a magnetic performance that earned her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

In her most recent projects, Plaza demonstrated her versatility by joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the enigmatic Rio Vidal / Death in the series Agatha All Along (2024), and starring in Francis Ford Coppola's cinematic epic Megalopolis (2024). She has continued to grow her company, Evil Hag Productions, signing on to star in highly anticipated projects like the upcoming dark comedy series The Heidi Fleiss Story. While keeping her private life strictly guarded and away from the media spotlight, her ongoing commitment to artistic experimentation and authentic storytelling has established Plaza as one of the most innovative and unpredictable figures in contemporary Hollywood.