Aubrey Plaza first rose to fame by playing cynical intern April Ludgate in NBC’s popular sitcom Parks and Recreation alongside Amy Pohler, Christ Pratt, and Nick Offerman.
Ever since her breakout role in this beloved sitcom, her fame, and popularity have skyrocketed exponentially. Most recently, Plaza starred in The White Lotus, winning a Screen Actors Guild Award and a nomination for the Golden Globe Awards for her performance.
Named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023 by Time magazine, there’s no doubt that Aubrey Plaza’s career is better than ever. Just this year, this actress starred in Guy Ritchie’s new action movie Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and is set to star in many other movies and TV series in the future, including playing a meaningful role in the Disney+ series Agatha: Coven of Chaos.
While nowadays, she doesn’t have to audition to land great roles, when she first started out, Plaza didn’t have much luck in auditions. For example, she tried to audition for Saturday Night Live but didn’t make the cast. Despite this, Plaza landed a small job in the production of the show, which she has now admitted that she had no real interest in.
Starring In Parks And Recreation Helped Kickstart Aubrey Plaza’s Career
Aubrey Plaza began her career by performing improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in the mid-2000s. Shortly after, she began landing small roles in TV shows, like the online series The Jeannie Tate Show, ESPN’s Mayne Street, and Terrible Decision with Ben Schwarts on Funny or Die.
And in 2009, she made her feature film debut by playing Seth Rogen’s love interest in Funny People, a comedy movie directed by Judd Apatow. That same year, she starred in the beloved cult-classic film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, as well as in Derrick Comedy’s Mystery Team.
But she didn’t get her big break until she landed the role of April Ludgate in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreations, created by Greg Daniels y Michael Schur. Plaza’s character soon became a fan-favorite and she would go on to play April during the show’s seven seasons, from 2009 to 2015.
In 2012, Plaza got her first leading film role in Safety Not Guaranteed. Following this, she appeared in many other movies, including The To Do List (2013), Life After Beth (2014), Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), Child's Play (2019), and Happiest Season (2020), Black Bear (2020), and Emily the Criminal (2022).
Aubrey Plaza Auditioned for Saturday Night Live, But Didn’t Get the Role
Earlier this year, Aubrey Plaza made her Saturday Night Live hosting debut, starring alongside musical guest Sam Smith. The White Lotus actress did such a great job that fans couldn’t help but wonder why she hadn’t been invited to SNL before. Well, it was definitely not for lack of trying on her part.
As it turns out, Aubrey Plaza tried to audition to join the SNL cast very early in her career. Unfortunately, she didn’t get the gig. During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Plaza revealed that she auditioned for SNL with two very bizarre original characters, but the producers were not impressed.
“I didn’t make it to the Lorne [Michaels] audition, the famous final audition, but I did a preliminary first-round showcase,” Plaza told Fallon. When the host asked whether she had any characters, she answered, “I remember one character I did was like a Puerto Rican news reporter that was always trying to make all of the news stories sexy, even if they were horrific news stories. I was just trying to, like, sex up the news or something.”
Then, Plaza went on to talk about the other character she prepared for her audition, it was “a pill-popping housewife that had a show called ‘Celebri-Tails,’ where I would just name celebrities and name what kind of tail they would have if they had a tail.
Like I would say, ‘Lindsay Lohan would have a bushy squirrel’s tail.’ Or, like, ‘Bill Clinton would have a polar bear’s nub.'” Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to get her on the show.
Despite Not Making the Cast of SNL, Aubrey Plaza Still Got to Work on this Popular Show
Despite failing her SNL audition, Aubrey Plaza still got a job on the show. From 2004 to 2005, the actress worked as an intern in the design department of this popular late-night live comedy show. While she got to be part of SNL, Plaza admitted that she didn’t really care much for this job.
“They loved me because I did not care about set design at all, and they wanted an intern that had no interest in learning what they did,” Plaza revealed, adding that she spent most of her time “stalking” and “lurking in the shadows.” “I was just, like, creepy. Like, I was a creepy stalker. Now I’m gonna host it, so my master plan worked!”