April Ludgate
Encyclopedia
April Roberta Ludgate is a fictional character in the NBC
comedy Parks and Recreation
. She is an apathetic college student employed by the Pawnee Department of Parks and Recreation as Ron Swanson
's assistant. She is married to Andy Dwyer
. She is portrayed by Aubrey Plaza. The character has gained popularity for her deadpan
-style comedy and witty one-liners.
and Puerto Rican
descent, and she speaks and understands Spanish fairly well as a result. April claims of her Puerto Rican heritage, "That's why I'm so lively and colorful."
April was responsible for uploading the staff bios onto the Pawnee parks and recreation site, and she jokingly made a fictional bio for herself that reads as follows:
(who works at city hall), the ex-boyfriend of Ann Perkins
. Andy is able to make April smile, which is something she rarely does. April flirts with Andy and even convinces Andy to let her give him hickeys on his neck in order to make Ann jealous, but Andy nevertheless remains unaware of her feelings toward him. In order to remain close to Andy, April volunteers to work as Ron's assistant, ending her time as an intern and establishing a full-time position at the Pawnee town hall. April finally breaks up with Derek after he makes fun of Andy and gives her a hard time about spending too much time with him. Toward the end of the season Andy and April's relationship begins to grow to the point that he begins to reciprocate her feelings but their age difference continues to be a wedge between them.
They admit their mutual attraction to each other in the season finale, but she tells him she does not want to get involved with him due to what she perceives as his lasting feelings for Ann. She changes her mind after he gets into a car accident and the two kiss for the first time, but she leaves abruptly after he reveals Ann kissed him.
between seasons but has returned to Pawnee to continue her job at the Parks Dept. and has a new Spanish-speaking Venezuelan boyfriend, Eduardo. April eventually loses interest in and breaks up with Eduardo after he becomes friends with Andy. Andy and April decide to get married in "Fancy Party" after only one month of dating. Andy had proposed to April the day before the party asking, "What if we got married tomorrow?" to which April replied, "Fine." They were married at their dinner party (which was actually a surprise ceremony) in front of their friends and family.
and said, "I just met the weirdest girl I’ve ever met in my life. You have to meet her and put her on your show." Schur said he met with her and was taken so off-guard by her quiet and deadpan personality that he felt incredibly awkward and uncomfortable, spending the whole meeting trying to keep her entertained. Schur said from that meeting on, he and fellow co-creator Greg Daniels
knew he wanted to cast her on the show. When the scripts for Parks and Recreation were first written, the character was referred to simply as "Aubrey".
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
comedy Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation is an American comedy television series on NBC that focuses on Leslie Knope , a mid-level bureaucrat in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the series debuted on April 9, 2009; it has run for three seasons and...
. She is an apathetic college student employed by the Pawnee Department of Parks and Recreation as Ron Swanson
Ron Swanson
Ronald Ulysses "Ron" Swanson is a fictional character played by Nick Offerman in the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation on NBC. Ron is parks department director in the Indiana city of Pawnee and the immediate superior of protagonist Leslie Knope...
's assistant. She is married to Andy Dwyer
Andy Dwyer
Andrew Maxwell "Andy" Dwyer is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He is Ann Perkins' ex-boyfriend, a talented-if-yet-unsuccessful musician, a shoe-shiner at Pawnee City Hall, and April Ludgate's husband. He is portrayed by Chris Pratt.-Background:At the start of the...
. She is portrayed by Aubrey Plaza. The character has gained popularity for her deadpan
Deadpan
Deadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone, solemn, blunt, disgusted or matter-of-fact voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor...
-style comedy and witty one-liners.
Background
April Ludgate is a college student who starts out working as an intern in the Pawnee parks and recreation department. April is extremely uninterested in the job, regularly napping at her desk and texting constantly, and acts very dry and sarcastic around her co-workers. She was assigned the internship because she overslept on intern sign-up date, which she blamed on her sister Natalie for not waking her up. April is of mixed EnglishEnglish people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
and Puerto Rican
Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...
descent, and she speaks and understands Spanish fairly well as a result. April claims of her Puerto Rican heritage, "That's why I'm so lively and colorful."
April was responsible for uploading the staff bios onto the Pawnee parks and recreation site, and she jokingly made a fictional bio for herself that reads as follows:
April Ludgate was born in BjörkBjörkBjörk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
’s house in IcelandIcelandIceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
and grew up on Easter IslandEaster IslandEaster Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
, where her parents were giant stone heads. She has the ability to fire beams of tacos out of her hands and she can turn her legs into tigers.
On Sundays, April enjoys reading Family CircusThe Family CircusThe Family Circus is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and currently written, inked, and colored by his son, Jeff Keane. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from...
and traveling through time. Her favorite color is greenish-transparent and her favorite movie is the one you just watched. April is in charge of uploading the staff bios to the website, and no one has checked over her work.
Season one
April starts as an intern at the parks department who is somewhat rebellious and is often annoyed by her fellow parks department workers. Her boyfriend, for the first two seasons, was Derek, who is openly gay and simultaneously dates a fellow college student named Ben, whom April dislikes. (Aubrey Plaza herself came up with the idea of her character's boyfriend being gay and dating another man.)Season two
Although still dating her gay boyfriend, April begins to develop a crush on Andy DwyerAndy Dwyer
Andrew Maxwell "Andy" Dwyer is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He is Ann Perkins' ex-boyfriend, a talented-if-yet-unsuccessful musician, a shoe-shiner at Pawnee City Hall, and April Ludgate's husband. He is portrayed by Chris Pratt.-Background:At the start of the...
(who works at city hall), the ex-boyfriend of Ann Perkins
Ann Perkins
Ann Meredith Perkins is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. She is a nurse and best friend of Leslie Knope. She is portrayed by Rashida Jones.-Season one:...
. Andy is able to make April smile, which is something she rarely does. April flirts with Andy and even convinces Andy to let her give him hickeys on his neck in order to make Ann jealous, but Andy nevertheless remains unaware of her feelings toward him. In order to remain close to Andy, April volunteers to work as Ron's assistant, ending her time as an intern and establishing a full-time position at the Pawnee town hall. April finally breaks up with Derek after he makes fun of Andy and gives her a hard time about spending too much time with him. Toward the end of the season Andy and April's relationship begins to grow to the point that he begins to reciprocate her feelings but their age difference continues to be a wedge between them.
They admit their mutual attraction to each other in the season finale, but she tells him she does not want to get involved with him due to what she perceives as his lasting feelings for Ann. She changes her mind after he gets into a car accident and the two kiss for the first time, but she leaves abruptly after he reveals Ann kissed him.
Season three
April traveled to VenezuelaVenezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
between seasons but has returned to Pawnee to continue her job at the Parks Dept. and has a new Spanish-speaking Venezuelan boyfriend, Eduardo. April eventually loses interest in and breaks up with Eduardo after he becomes friends with Andy. Andy and April decide to get married in "Fancy Party" after only one month of dating. Andy had proposed to April the day before the party asking, "What if we got married tomorrow?" to which April replied, "Fine." They were married at their dinner party (which was actually a surprise ceremony) in front of their friends and family.
Development
The role of April Ludgate was written specifically for Aubrey Plaza. Upon meeting the actress, Parks and Recreation casting director Allison Jones contacted series co-creator Michael SchurMichael Schur
Michael Herbert Schur is an American television producer and writer, best known for his work on the NBC comedy series The Office and Parks and Recreation, the latter of which he co-created along with Greg Daniels...
and said, "I just met the weirdest girl I’ve ever met in my life. You have to meet her and put her on your show." Schur said he met with her and was taken so off-guard by her quiet and deadpan personality that he felt incredibly awkward and uncomfortable, spending the whole meeting trying to keep her entertained. Schur said from that meeting on, he and fellow co-creator Greg Daniels
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin "Greg" Daniels is an American television comedy writer, producer, and director.-Life and career:...
knew he wanted to cast her on the show. When the scripts for Parks and Recreation were first written, the character was referred to simply as "Aubrey".