Aubrey Plaza
Birthdate: Jun 26, 1984
Birthplace: Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Aubrey Plaza (birthname: Aubrey Christina Plaza) has been one of the most prominent actors in American indie moviemaking since the 2010s, known for her style of ironic sarcasm which conceals a performer of considerable range, with her big-screen career launched at the Sundance Film Festival (where she has been sometimes dubbed “The Queen of Sundance” for the long list of her movies premiering there) as part of the cast of director/co-writer Dan Eckman’s indie comedy, Mystery Team (2009), with Donald Glover, DC Pierson and Dominic Dierkes (who all also co-wrote), and released by Roadside Attractions.
Plaza joined her first star-studded cast in director/writer/producer Judd Apatow’s comedy, Funny People (2009), starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, and Jason Schwartzman. Still, the film grossed a disappointing $71 million for Universal Pictures. Plaza landed a major supporting role in director/co-writer/producer Edgar Wright’s cult classic, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman, and while it initially failed for Universal in its first release the movie has since gained near-legendary cult status and marked career-best performances for many of Wright’s cast members. Plaza’s first starring role was in director/producer Colin Trevorrow’s sci-fi comedy, Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), with Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Kristen Bell, Jeff Garlin and Mary Lynn Rajskub, and delivering solid box office after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for writer Derek Connolly.
Plaza continued her pattern of working with creative indie filmmakers by starring in both director/writer Jeff Baena’s zombie comedy, Life After Beth (2014), with Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Paul Reiser, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, produced by American Zoetrope and released by A24; and also co-starring in director/writer/producer Hal Hartley’s Ned Rifle (2014), with Liam Aiken, Parker Posey, James Urbaniak, Martin Donovan and Bill Sage, and released by Fortissimo Films. Plaza had the leading female role opposite Robert De Niro and Zac Efron in the Dan Mazer-directed comedy, Dirty Grandpa (2016), with Zoey Deutch, Julianne Hough, and Dermot Mulroney, and earned ten percent ($105 million gross on an $11.5 million budget) for Lionsgate.
Aubrey Plaza reunited with the late director/writer Jeff Baena (her boyfriend at the time and future husband) in a small supporting role in the comedy-drama, Joshy (2016), with Thomas Middleditch, Adam Pally, Alex Ross Perry, Nick Kroll, Brett Gilman and Jenny Slate, and premiering at the Sundance Film Festival before a limited Lionsgate Premiere release. Plaza co-starred in her first studio movie, 20th Century Fox’s rom-com, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), starring Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Adam DeVine, and Stephen Root, and earning a modest $77 million.
Plaza took on her first two movies as star/producer in the same year, first in Jeff Baena’s black comic adaptation of Boccaccio’s The Decameron, The Little Hours (2017), with Alison Brie, Dave Franco, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon and Fred Armisen, and distributed by Gunpowder & Sky/Universal Pictures; and then as star/producer of director/co-writer Matt Spicer’s black comic-drama, Ingrid Goes West (2017), Plaza’s second movie to win the Waldo Salt Screenwriting award at Sundance (where it premiered), with Elizabeth Olsen, Billy Magnussen, Wyatt Russell and Pom Klementieff, and grossing over $3 million for distributor Neon.
Aubrey Plaza starred in yet another Sundance-premiering indie black comedy, director/co-writer Jim Hosking’s An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018), with Emile Hirsch, Jemaine Clement and Craig Robinson, and released by The Film Arcade/Picturehouse Entertainment, and then Plaza made a rare jump into genre movies with the lead role in the Lars Klevberg-directed remake, Child’s Play (2019), with Gabriel Bateman, Brian Tyree Henry and Mark Hamill (as the voice of Chucky!), and grossing four times costs with a $45 million return for United Artists Releasing. Plaza was again the star/producer of a Sundance-premiering indie movie and received some of her career-best reviews for her complex lead role in director/writer/producer Lawrence Michael Levine’s Black Bear (2020), with Christopher Abbott, Sarah Gadon, Paola Lazaro, and Grantham Coleman, and released by Momentum Pictures.
Plaza co-starred with Michael Caine in the comedy-drama, Best Sellers (2021), with Scott Speedman, Ellen Wong, and Cary Elwes, and selected for premiere at the Berlin Film Festival (cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and released in the U.S. by Screen Media Films. Plaza made one of her biggest impacts as star/producer of director/writer John Patton Ford’s fine crime movie debut, Emily the Criminal (2022), with Gina Gershon, and was picked by distributors Roadside Attractions/Vertical Entertainment/Universal Pictures after launching at the Sundance Film Festival.
Aubrey Plaza appeared to excellent effect in a smaller role in her late husband/filmmaker Jeff Baena’s final feature, Spin Me Round (2022), with star/co-writer/producer Alison Brie and released by IFC Films after premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and then switched to spy action comedy mode as co-star opposite Jason Statham, Josh Hartnett and Hugh Grant in Guy Ritchie’s under-performing Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023), produced by Miramax/STXfilms and released in the U.S. by Lionsgate to a poor $49 million take. Plaza co-starred with debuting Maisy Stella (Plaza playing Stella’s older self) in director/writer Megan Park’s comedy-drama, My Old Ass (2024), with Percy Hynes White and Maddie Ziegler, and released by Amazon, MGM Studios/Warner Bros., to a $5.7 million return after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.
Plaza joined the sprawling cast—and standing out from the crowd of actors in the splashy, over-the-top role of TV host Wow Platinum--in Francis Ford Coppola’s long-in-the-making futurist drama, Megalopolis (2024), starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman, proving to be a spectacular commercial bomb with a mere $14.3 million gross against $136 million costs after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival. Plaza then played a cop to Margaret Qualley’s private eye in the second in director/co-writer/producer Ethan Coen’s and co-writer/producer Tricia Cooke’s “lesbian B-movie trilogy,” Honey Don’t! (2025), with Charlie Day and Chris Evans, produced by Focus Features/Working Title Films and released by Focus Features/Universal Pictures.
Aubrey Plaza co-starred with Jason Momoa and Ryan Reynolds in director/co-writer/actor Peter Atencio’s live-action/animated road comedy, Animal Friends (2026), with Vince Vaughn, Addison Rae, Eric Andre, Dan Levy, Lil Rel Howery and Joaquim De Almeida, backed mainly by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Plaza was in another animated projects, taking a voice role in Amazon MGM Studio’s first animated feature, The Ark and the Aardvark (2026), co-starring the voices of Miles Teller, Jenny Slate, Craig Robinson, Stephen Merchant, Rob Riggle, Stephanie Sheh and Lisa Ortiz under John Stevenson’s direction.
Plaza turned to dramatic mode as star/producer of director/co-writer Zach Woods’ drama, The Accompanist (date to be announced), co-starring Susan Sarandon and Everly Carganilla, and then Plaza was cast for the lead by legendary American indie filmmaker John Waters for his first feature in over two decades, Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance (date to be announced). Plaza was the star/producer of director/co-writer Leah Rachel’s The Heidi Fleiss Story (date to be announced), the first time Plaza depicted a living figure in a biopic.
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Personal life
Aubrey Plaza was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, by her parents, David (financial advisor) and Bernadette (attorney). Plaza has two younger sisters named Renee and Nat. Her paternal side is Puerto Rican, and her maternal side is primarily Irish, but she also has a diverse heritage, including Indigenous and Basque. Plaza attended the all-girls Catholic school, Ursuline Academy, where she served as student council president while performing in community theater, the Wilmington Drama League, and the Delaware Theatre Company.
Plaza studied improv in Philadelphia and studied filmmaking at a summer camp at the New York Academy College of Film, Media, and Performing Arts. Plaza studied film and television production and graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2006. Plaza, after a long relationship period dating back to 2011, was married to director/writer Jeff Baena from 2021 to 2024, when they separated; Baena committed suicide four months later. Plaza’s height is 5’ 6”. Plaza’s estimated net worth is $8 million.
Aubrey Plaza Movies
actor
Upcoming (1)
- 2026 |
Animal Friends
Two animals become unlikely friends.
Previous (15)
- 2025 |
Honey Don’t!
Two women take a road trip.
- 2024 |
Megalopolis
asWow Platinum
The city of New Rome faces the duel between Cesar Catilina, a brilliant artist in favor of an Utopian future, and the greedy mayor Franklyn Cicero. Between them is Julia Cicero, with her loyalty divided between her father and her beloved.
- 2024 |
My Old Ass
asOlder Elliott
A mushroom trip brings free-spirited Elliott face-to-face with her 39-year-old self. But when Elliott's "old ass" delivers warnings to her younger self, Elliott realizes she has to rethink everything about her family, life and love.
- 2023 |
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
asSarah
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
Special agent Orson Fortune and his team of operatives recruit one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars to help them on an undercover mission when the sale of a deadly new weapons technology threatens to disrupt the world order.
- 2022 |
Spin Me Round
asKat
A woman wins an all-expenses-paid trip to a company's gorgeous "institute" outside of Florence, and also the chance to meet the restaurant chain's wealthy and charismatic owner. She finds a different adventure than the one she imagined.
- 2022 |
Emily the Criminal
asEmily
Down on her luck and saddled with debt, Emily gets involved in a credit card scam that pulls her into the criminal underworld of Los Angeles, ultimately leading to deadly consequences.
- 2021 |
Best Sellers
asLucy Stanbridge
A cranky, retired author reluctantly embarks on a final book tour to help out a young publisher.
- 2019 |
Child’s Play
asKaren
A mother gives her 13-year-old son a toy doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature.
- 2018 |
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn
asLulu Danger
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn
Lulu Danger's unsatisfying marriage takes a turn for the worst when a mysterious man from her past comes to town to perform an event called "An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn; For One Magical Night Only."
- 2017 |
Ingrid Goes West
asIngrid Thorburn
After her release from a psychiatric ward, a woman obsessed with social media moves to LA to stalk an Instagram star, but her plan takes a dark turn.
- 2017 |
The Little Hours
asSister Fernanda
In the Middle Ages, a young servant fleeing from his master takes refuge at a convent full of emotionally unstable nuns. Introduced as a deaf mute man, he must fight to hold his cover as the nuns try to resist temptation.
- 2016 |
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
asTatiana
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
Two hard-partying brothers place an online ad to find the perfect dates for their sister's Hawaiian wedding. Hoping for a wild getaway, the boys instead find themselves out-hustled by an uncontrollable duo.
- 2016 |
Dirty Grandpa
asLenore
Right before his wedding, an uptight corporate lawyer is tricked into driving his grandfather, a lecherous former Army Lieutenant Colonel, to Florida for Spring Break.
- 2013 |
Monsters University
asGreek Council President
A look at the relationship between Mike Wazowski and James P. "Sully" Sullivan during their days at Monsters University, when they weren't necessarily the best of friends.
- 2010 |
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
asJulie Powers
In a magically realistic version of Toronto, a young man must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil exes one by one in order to win her heart.
Facts About Aubrey Plaza
Heritage: Aubrey Plaza has Puerto Rican, Indigenous American (Taino), Basque, Irish and West African heritage.
Shingle: Plaza’s own production company is called Evil Hag Productions.
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