(Photo: The Selby)

"The Internet is pretty much how I got where I am,” says 24-year-old Aubrey Plaza, who’s currently filming Judd Apatow’s latest, Funny People, due out this summer. Plaza, a member of New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, came to Apatow’s attention while starring in a web comedy series, The Jeannie Tate Show, directed by Maggie Carey, wife of SNL’s Bill Hader. “Judd likes to cast people unconventionally,” says Plaza, who taught herself how to do stand-up comedy to win the part of Seth Rogen’s love interest. The movie follows a group of up-and-coming comedians: “I play a kind of a young Janeane Garofalo. The great thing about the part is that she’s the girlfriend, but she’s really funny too. And Judd lets me say crazy things.” Plaza, whose next project is Amy Poehler’s as-yet-untitled sitcom, is happy to report that working on an Apatow film is just as fun as it appears to be. “They’re all so laid-back and normal. They remind me of my friends at UCB. They all act like it’s no big deal, like, ‘Oh, we’re just hanging out.’ ”

See Also: Slideshow: Aubrey's World

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• Archive: “Cover Story”
• Articles by Emma Rosenblum
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