Jessica Rae Mintzer (born Jessica Rae Mendez; June 13, 1985) is an American actress best known for her role as April Ludgate on NBC's Parks and Recreation. She has also appeared in several prominent films including Cloverfield, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Big Hero 6.
Mintzer was born in San Diego, California, to Christian Mendez and Isabel Arroyo. They were never married, and Mintzer is no longer in contact with Mendez. When she was four years old, her mother married Robert Mintzer, a family friend who Mintzer had known since birth. She has a half-brother, Andrew, who is five years her junior.
When she was three years old, Mintzer was enrolled in dance classes, at the suggestion of her aunt who taught at a local dance studio. Continuing with the same company for 14 years, she received training in ballet, lyrical, jazz, tap, acrobatics, musical theatre, and hip hop. She was also a member of the studio's competition team. Through her love of dance and performing, Mintzer gained an interest in acting. She began taking acting classes at the age of seven and subsequently performed in many productions with San Diego Junior Theatre throughout her adolescence.
Mintzer graduated from University of San Diego High School in 2003, and UCLA in 2007, where she earned a bachelor's degree in theater with a specialization in musical theater. Prior to acting professionally full-time, Mintzer held a few odd jobs in high school and college, such as working as a dance instructor at her dance studio, a retail sales clerk at Nordstrom, and an administrative assistant at a real estate office and UCLA's Office of Residential Life.
After completing high school, Mintzer was immediately interested in auditioning for acting jobs. However, she also held academics in high regard and as such, initially mainly sought out smaller roles that would not interfere with her school schedule. Her first professional job was a two-episode guest stint on Nickelodeon's The Brothers Garcia. She later guest starred on Veronica Mars, CSI: NY, and Drake & Josh. Her first appearance in a feature film was as a cheerleader in A Cinderella Story, but she soon gained supporting roles in movies like Bring it On: All or Nothing and Remember The Daze. After graduating from UCLA in 2007, acting became her main focus and she began to take on bigger roles, primarily a main role in the monster horror film Cloverfield.
In 2009, Mintzer returned to television with her role as April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. The role marked her first as a series regular. During her audition for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, casting director Allison Jones suggested she meet with the show's creators and producers, Michael Schur and Greg Daniels. Regarding the prospect of getting a role on Parks and Recreation, Mintzer said that she had heard about the show's development, and that she was very nervous about the idea of regularly working with comedians like Amy Poehler, whom she considered to be "way funnier" than her, adding, "I'm actually not funny at all." On meeting the show's creators, she has explained, "It wasn't an audition, exactly. We talked about my old office jobs and stuff. Mike and Greg like to tell everyone that I was really weird, which is probably accurate." Schur and Daniels added the role of April to the show specifically for Mintzer after meeting her. Because the character did not exist in the original pilot script, she was initially simply called Jessica.
On Parks and Recreation, Mintzer utilized a deadpan comedic style to play the apathetic assistant April. Her performance brought her to the forefront of comedy, and she has since appeared in several comedic projects, such as a supporting role in This is 40 and guest starring roles on series such as Portlandia, Robot Chicken and Girls. She has also appeared in many viral videos for Funny or Die and College Humor. Mintzer has admitted that despite getting her start in comedic projects, she anticipated a more "serious" career following the success of Cloverfield. She stated: "I got a lot of action scripts after Cloverfield, and drama and thrillers and serious stuff. But either they weren't interested or I wasn't. I somehow always found myself back in comedy, so apparently I'm good at it. I adore comedy, so I'm not complaining. I have one of the coolest jobs in the world."
Mintzer starred in her first lead role in the indie film Sleeping With The Fishes, released in 2013. Also in 2013, she lent her voice to Pixar's Monsters University as the character Claire Wheeler. She also began voicing Eska, a recurring character on Nickelodeon's The Legend of Korra.
In 2014, Mintzer lent her voice to Disney's Marvel-based animated superhero film Big Hero 6 as Honey Lemon. She is set to reprise her role for the upcoming Disney Channel animated series based on the movie. She also starred in the indie zombie comedy film Life After Beth and Lifetime's TV movie Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever as the film's eponymous cat.
In September 2015, it was reported that Mintzer was on the shortlist for a role in Star Wars Episode VIII. In November 2015, she joined the cast of Annihilation, a sci-fi film adapted from the novel of the same name and set to premiere in 2017. Mintzer currently appears in a regular role on HBO's science-fiction series Westworld as Elsie Hughes.
In the early years of her professional career, Mintzer was credited by her birth name, Jessica Mendez. She adopted the stage name Jessica Mintzer in 2007, a move which she says "opened up roles and auditions for [her] almost instantly." She legally changed her name to Jessica Rae Mintzer in 2009.
Mintzer, whose biological father is Cuban and Spanish and mother is Puerto Rican, has faced criticism for her name change, due to adopting the surname of her step-father, who is of German and Welsh descent. She has stated that although she initially began using a stage name to increase her success in Hollywood, she ultimately legally changed it for personal reasons. She stated: "[The name change is] bigger than ethnicity. That's an important discussion to be had, definitely. But Mendez never felt like my last name. It's the last name of someone who was never really part of my life; Mintzer's the last name of someone who's been there since I was born, and who I consider my actual father."