Aubrey Plaza

Aubrey Plaza's deadpan delivery and genre-fluid range have made her one of indie and prestige television's most versatile actors. Born June 26, 1984, in the US, Plaza honed her craft in improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre before graduating from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Her feature debut came in Mystery Team, but wide recognition arrived via April Ludgate, the Parks and Recreation character she played from 2009 to 2015 on NBC. The role—a dry, sardonic government employee—became definitive, cementing her as a comedic force.

In film, Plaza has moved fluidly between genres. She took a supporting role in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and a leading role in Safety Not Guaranteed, then pivoted to darker, more challenging material: she produced and starred in the 2017 black-comedy The Little Hours and Ingrid Goes West, and produced and played the title character in the 2022 crime film Emily the Criminal. Her television work expanded beyond comedy—from 2017 to 2019, she portrayed the Shadow King and Lenny Busker in the critically acclaimed FX series Legion, roles that showcased her range in complex, prestige drama. In 2020, she appeared in the romantic comedy Happiest Season and the thriller Black Bear.

Plaza's career reached a new cultural peak with The White Lotus, the HBO anthology series in which she earned a Primetime Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for her second-season role. Time magazine recognized her influence by naming her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023. In 2024, she expanded into blockbuster franchises, starring in Megalopolis and My Old Ass, and taking on the role of Rio Vidal/Death in the Marvel Cinematic Universe miniseries Agatha All Along. A Cancer, Plaza tends to channel emotional complexity and subtext into roles that resist easy categorization, whether comedic or dramatic—a gift that has defined her trajectory across television, film, and cultural discourse.