Aubrey Plaza, the brunette actress known for her deadpan comedy as the dour April in NBC's "Parks and Recreation" revealed a little-known fact about herself: she is a proud Boricua. According to The Huffington Post, Plaza discussed her Puerto Rican background in Cosmopolitan for Latinas magazine, for which she is the Fall 2013 cover girl.
Plaza, the star of the film "The To Do List," dons a fire-red leather dress on the cover along with red lips and nails, and has her quote beside her that reads, "Boricua pa'que lo sepas!" On Tuesday, Plaza tweeted, "FINALLY PROOF THAT IM HALF PUERTO RICAN!!' with a link to the Cosmo for Latinas website.
Plaza, who hails from Wilmington, Del., claims that a lot of people would not initially think that she is of the Latino persuasion. "A lot of people don't assume I'm Puerto Rican because I'm fair skinned," Plaza told Cosmopolitan for Latinas. "But I feel very connected to that side of my family."
The 29-year-old actress discussed the funny and sometimes embarrassing aspects of her Latina heritage. "My aunts and uncles used to teach my friends salsa at all my birthday parties in middle school," Plaza said. "It. Was. Awkward."
Plaza further claimed that she doesn't just play comedic roles; humor is part of her nature. "Humor is always the way I deal with everything," Plaza said. "Whether it was a shi**y job, a boring class, or anything, my brain is always looking at it through that lens."
Plaza also discussed her starring role as Brandy Klark in the recently released film "The To Do List," a ribald coming-of-age comedy set in the early 1990s about a girl who wants to gain more sexual experience before going off to college. "[In The To Do List] I look at the schedule... and it was like, 'So today I'm gonna have to give someone a b*** job, hump a pillow, masturbate in front of everyone,'" Plaza said. "So I'd be like, 'Oh, my god,' and I would let myself freak out about it for, like, three minutes in my trailer, and then I would be like, 'Done.'"
The fall 2013 Cosmopolitan for Latinas featuring Plaza will hit shelves on Aug. 6.