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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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(#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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(#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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(#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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(#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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(#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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