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(#1) She Made Out With Co-Star Jim O'Heir
Unpredictability is the trait that most defines both April and the actress who plays her. Plaza demonstrated her unpredictability to a stunning degree on a 2015 episode of the talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers when she made out with co-star Jim O'Heir, who played Jerry Gergich.
Meyers had the entire cast on during the night of Parks and Recreation's series finale. At the end, they all gathered together to sing the show's song "By- Bye, Li'l Sebastian." Almost immediately, Plaza grabbed O'Heir and started passionately kissing him. They went at it for 45 seconds, while their castmates struggled to continue singing through their laughter.
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(#2) She Once Stole Notes From The Vice President's Office
In 2012, then-Vice President Joe Biden made a guest appearance on Parks and Recreation. For most of the cast, it was the first time meeting the future POTUS, but Plaza had history with Biden. As fellow famous faces from the state of Delaware, the two had actually crossed paths several times before, dating back to when Plaza was a teenager attending a leadership conference.
As Plaza remembers, this particular meeting mirrored others they had in the past:
“He knew my name. He was, like, ‘Aubrey!'” she recalled in a profile from New Yorker. “Whenever I see him, he always tells me the same story. His first wife went to the same high school that I went to, so he always tells me about how he used to wait outside the convent for her, because it’s an all-girls Catholic school—and it’s a very sweet story, but I’ve heard it a lot. I was, like, ‘I know, Joe! She went to Ursuline!'”
Perhaps a bit miffed by their exchange, Plaza later found herself inquisitively looking around Biden's desk during an office tour. There, she spotted a note with details about her and Biden's shared connection, proving a suspicion she had all along:
“I was like ‘I knew it! He doesn’t remember me at all!’ But that’s how politicians are, you know? I pocketed it, and Mike Schur, the creator of Parks and Rec, was horrified. He was, like, ‘You cannot steal from the White House!’ And I was, like, ‘I don’t give a sh*t! I know what he did! He didn’t know me!'”
Despite committing what arguably might be a Federal offense, Plaza didn't seem too concerned.
“Yeah, I stole it right off his desk. And there’s got to be cameras in the White House. But they didn’t do anything to me.”
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(#3) She Took An NBC Page Uniform
In one memorable Parks and Recreation episode, April takes her father's car so she and Andy can drive to the Grand Canyon. Like her character, Plaza occasionally has sticky fingers. NBC fired her from its much-respected page program, which has employees giving tours of the 30 Rock building.
The actress did not want to return her uniform. She explained the firing to Elle:
I wasn't used to working in a corporate environment like NBC where there are HR rules. It's fuzzy to me exactly what happened, but I think I made a joke about Jesus being crucified or I wrote it on a wall, and I got in trouble. Three or four months after I started, they were like, "Maybe this isn't right for you," and I was like, "Maybe it isn't."
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(#4) She Was Named After A '70s Song By The Band Bread
On the show, April is married to Andy Dwyer, who has long been an aspiring rock star. Music has also played a significant role in Plaza's life. In the 1970s, there was a popular soft-rock band called Bread. They were best-known for the hits "Make It With You" and "Baby I'm-a Want You."
Plaza's mother was a fan of Bread, so she named her daughter after one of the group's lesser-known hits, "Aubrey."
"It's a love song - kind of - but it's kind of depressing and dark," Plaza told Elle. "She was 20 years old when she had me, so it does kind of give me an idea of what she was like back then."
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(#5) She's Married To One Of Her Directors
Plaza has remained relatively open about her personal life. She told The Advocate, "I fall in love with girls and guys. I can't help it." In 2021, she married her longtime partner Jeff Baena, who works behind the camera as a writer and director. He's the Andy to her April.
Just as those two characters like to be creative together in the form of their alter egos Burt Macklin and Janet Snakehole, Plaza and Baena enjoy mutual creativity. The couple worked together on three feature films: Life After Beth, Joshy, and The Little Hours, in which Plaza played a foul-mouthed, frisky nun.
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(#6) She Was Kicked Out Of The MTV Movie Awards
One of the funniest aspects of Parks and Recreation is April's unpredictability. She gets a perverse thrill out of shocking people. The same can be said for the actress playing her. Will Ferrell found this out the hard way. While accepting his MTV Movie Award for Comedic Genius in 2013, an intoxicated Plaza spontaneously stormed the stage and tried to wrestle his trophy from him.
Ferrell attempted to play along, but the show's producers were unamused and promptly kicked her out.
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(#7) She Was Surrounded By Comedians Before Getting Famous
It's no wonder Plaza is hilarious. Long before she became famous on Parks and Recreation, she was surrounded by some of the most talented comedians in the world. While attending NYU's Tisch School for the Arts, she got an internship on the legendary late-night sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.
Shortly thereafter, she secured a spot on the roster at the Upright Citizens Brigade - the same improv theater that helped launch the careers of Kate McKinnon, Donald Glover, and future co-star Amy Poehler. Another future co-star, Aziz Ansari, was there at the same time.
Exposure at UCB brought her to the attention of writer/director/comedy guru Judd Apatow, who gave her a supporting role in his film Funny People, opposite Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. Parks and Rec came right after that.
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(#8) She Almost Married Michael Cera
Before her current long-term relationship with writer/director Jeff Baena, Plaza dated Michael Cera, with whom she starred in the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Their relationship was apparently pretty serious. She revealed on RuPaul's What's the Tee? podcast that she and Cera almost got married.
After dating for a year and a half, the two took a road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles. Along the way, they strongly considered swinging through Las Vegas to tie the knot. Though she didn't say what changed their minds, Plaza did acknowledge that Cera remains "very special" to her.
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(#9) She's A Member Of A Basketball Team
Basketball has played a significant role in the lives of both April Ludgate and her real-life counterpart, albeit to different levels of success. In the "Comeback Kid" episode, April books a basketball court for Leslie's political campaign rally, unaware that it's become an ice rink.
Plaza, meanwhile, is a point guard on the Pistol Shrimps, a rec-league basketball team in Los Angeles comprising women from various creative industries. The team was the subject of a 2016 documentary bearing their name, and they also have a podcast, Pistol Shrimps Radio.
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(#10) She Didn't Recognize Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling is a bonafide household-name celebrity, so it's difficult to imagine anyone being oblivious to him. Then again, Plaza isn't just anyone. Gosling attempted to strike up a conversation with her at a Jamba Juice. It did not go well for him.
She told Rolling Stone that he expressed his fondness for Parks and Recreation to her. She responded by asking if he was an actor. Even after he gave his name, she couldn't place him, though she did admit he looked somewhat familiar.
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(#11) She's Notoriously Strange On Talk Shows
If you've ever seen Plaza on a talk show or other televised interview, you know it usually ends up being uncomfortable. Just like April, she finds enjoyment in making people a little bit afraid of her.
The actress loves awkward pauses, appearing to be bored or "out of it," and taking a slightly adversarial attitude toward her interviewer. Plaza told Elle:
I'm actually a shy person... I think that's why I'm so awkward in interviews and on late-night TV shows or whatever, because I don't really love being myself in those situations. So, I tend to play a different character or make some weird performance out of it, because that's more fun for me.
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(#12) She Was Voted The Most Famous Person From Delaware
Plaza hails from Delaware, the second-smallest state in America. A 2018 poll gave the actress a distinct honor, naming her Delaware's Most Famous Person. Lest you think the competition wasn't too tough on that count, it's important to consider some of the people she beat out, including former Vice President Joe Biden, Oscar-nominated actress Elisabeth Shue, and rocker George Thorogood. In fact, she raked in 42% of the vote - more than the rest of the top 5 combined.
Her official statement was perfectly in line with her offbeat personality: "I'm so honored and incredibly surprised, but deep down, I feel like I've accomplished nothing. I feel empty inside."
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(#13) She Dreamed Of Being In A Broadway Musical
Plaza grew up obsessed with Judy Garland, so she was naturally drawn to Broadway. After doing some community theater in her home state of Delaware, she begged her mother to drive her to New York City so she could audition for a stage production of Garland's classic film The Wizard of Oz, which was being staged at Madison Square Garden.
"I had no chance of getting a part - I mean, no chance in the world," Plaza told Marie Claire. "An open casting at Madison Square Garden? But I guess it just reminds me of how delusional I was at a young age, that I really believed I had a shot."
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(#14) She Voiced Grumpy Cat In A Movie
Not many performers have had the opportunity to play a popular internet meme - Plaza is the exception. She provided the voice of online sensation Grumpy Cat in a 2014 Lifetime movie called Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever.
During an interview to promote the film, Plaza told Jimmy Kimmel it was "the weirdest thing I've ever seen" and encouraged viewers to "have a couple glasses of wine" before watching it.
The casting was oddly perfect, given that April is as prone to grumpiness like Grumpy Cat.
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(#15) She Has A Thing For Movie Dads
Everyone has a type they're physically attracted to in film and on television. For Plaza, that type is a bit unexpected. She told W Magazine that she "was always into the dads" in popular movies. "I remember when Casper came out, all my friends were obsessed with Devon Sawa and they had a crush on him, but I always had a crush on Bill Pullman, who played the dad," she said.
Plaza also listed John Heard in Home Alone and Dennis Quaid in The Parent Trap as cinematic dads who left her reeling.
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