No more playing dress-up in mom's Eighties power suits! Parks and Recreation's Aubrey Plaza opens up about her fashion faux past

Funny girl Aubrey Plaza has founded her career on dry sarcasm and witty one-liners, but for the March cover shoot for ASOS Magazine, she steps briefly out of her comfort zone and gets into model mode.
The pretty 28-year-old - who plays apathetic college intern April Ludgate in the cult comedy television show Parks and Recreation - models the the online fashion store's spring range featuring bold stripes and graphic monochrome patterns.
In an interview with the magazine, the comedienne talks candidly about her own fashion choices and the women on Saturday Night Live who inspired her growing up, including her now co-star, Am

More than just a pretty face: 28-year-old Aubrey Plaza became a cult comedy icon almost overnight, with roles in the successful 2009 comedies Funny People and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

'SNL was so big for me growing up, I couldn’t believe how amazing these women were.
'Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch. Any woman that was on SNL, they were instantly my hero.'
The rising star has earned her comedy stripes playing hilariously deadpan April - a role that was apparently written specifically for her - on the NBC show, now in its fifth season.

 

And last year she landed her first leading role in a movie, Safety Not Guaranteed.
In the Los Angeles photo shoot for ASOS, Miss Plaza strikes a humorous pose with a plateful of donuts, sporting graphic black-and-white prints, sparkling necklaces and collars and cat eye sunglasses.
The Delaware-born daughter of Puerto Rican and Irish parents began her comedy career by joining improvisation groups and broadcasting her self-produced comedy videos on the internet.

Born to make people laugh: The Parks and Rec star talks to ASOS Magazine about her realization from an early age: 'My brain was wired to think about things in terms of how funny they were'

She explains: 'I really wanted to be on Saturday Night Live and I knew to get on SNL, you had to do improv and sketch.
'Everybody’s doing it now, but it was right at the beginning of all that, and things happened for me really quickly from there.'
'Quickly' is an understatement - although she never did secure a place on SNL, Miss Plaza virtually exploded onto the American comedy scene in 2009, becoming a hipster icon almost overnight.
'I was cast in Funny People, Scott Pilgrim and Parks and Recreation all at the same time.

'I think I was very lucky. Right place at the right time.'
But despite her rapid rise to fame, Miss Plaza says comedy has always been an integral part of her life.

Role models: Miss Plaza cites Saturday Night Live comediennes - including her now co-star, Amy Poehler - as the people she looks up to most, explaining, 'Any woman that was on SNL, they were instantly my hero'

She told the magazine: 'I realized two things from an early age. That I was insane and had some kind of comedic thing going on.
'Maybe it was from watching all the Saturday Night Live, but my brain was wired to think about things in terms of how funny they were.'
As a child, even her fashion choices were injected with a sense of humor.
For dress-down Fridays, the young Miss Plaza would go to school with a briefcase, wearing her mother's bright pink power suit and playing the role of Beverley Kalpin, an estate agent character she created .

Earning her stripes: The ASOS cover girl - best known for playing deadpan college intern April Ludgate on NBC's Parks and Recreation - landed her first lead role in a movie, Safety Not Guaranteed, last year

She rolls her eyes at the memory: 'My mom's a lawyer, so she has all these Eighties power suits.
'I thought it was really funny, so instead of wearing jeans and trying to look cool like everybody else, I would dress up like this character I created.
'Even though it was a joke, I really loved that outfit.'
These days her wardrobe is filled with simple classics like J. Crew sweaters and Isabel Marant ankle boots, and she cites her good friend and Parks and Rec co-star Rashida Jones as one of her style icons.
But she also harbors an interest in more old-fashioned glamor, revealing her love of Tilda Swinton's Sixties style in the Wes Anderson Moonrise Kingdom.
'In my fantasy brain, I would dress like that every day. Wearing silk white capes. I love that witchy look.