Pregnant Aubrey Plaza looks radiant as she joins surprise guests on Stephen Colbert's second-to-last show

Aubrey Plaza brought a surprise dose of star power on the second-to-last episode of The Last Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night.

The 41-year-old actress looked absolutely stunning as she made a grand entrance while showing off her heavily pregnant figure.

Plaza poked fun at her prominent baby bump with her characteristic deadpan humor after she revealed last month that she's expecting her first child with Girls star Christopher Abbott.

The lovebirds were spotted together on Tuesday as they watched the New York Knicks take on the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game One of the NBA conference finals in New York City.

She was helping to send off Colbert after CBS announced that it would be canceling The Late Show amid repeated criticism over Colbert's jokes from President Donald Trump and its parent company Paramount's attempt to ink a merger deal with Skydance Media.

Plaza was one of the celebrity guests in an episode packed with them, including Robert De Niro, James Taylor, Ben Stiller, Billy Crystal, Martha Stewart, Josh Brolin, Amy Sedaris and more.

Each of the celebrity guests got to take a turn behind Colbert's desk to ask him one question, while he moved over to the first chair to answer. 

But to avoid getting too somber for the 62-year-old late-night host's penultimate episode, Plaza and the rest of the stars asked him hilariously inconsequential questions. 

After guest announcer John Dickerson announced Plaza's name, the audience erupted into cheers as she sped out while wearing a lovely navy dress that downplayed her baby bump, which was also partially hidden behind her blue notecard.

After she took a seat, Colbert asked her how things were going, and Plaza shifted awkwardly in her seat and looked down.

'Um, everything's going normal here!' she said in a sing-song tone with a nervous grin. 'Nothing weird...'

She turned on a dime and joked, 'My water broke backstage. They said it was gonna take a couple hours, so I can still do this.'

Colbert said it was 'very generous' of her to stick around, and he said they would get a 'squeegee' for her.

Then Plaza got down to business with a glance down at her notecard.

'So Stephen, cats or dogs?' she asked. 

'I have lived with both of them,' he replied somberly before pausing to think, ultimately answering, 'Dogs.' 

Because of the rapid-fire nature of the questions, there wasn't time for a follow-up from Plaza, and the episode moved on to questions from James Taylor and Robert De Niro.

The White Lotus actress's fans were shocked last month by reports that Plaza was expecting her first child with Abbott, 40.

The baby, whose gender has not been revealed, is due in the fall.

'It was a beautiful surprise after an emotional year,' a source told People.

The couple, who previously starred on Broadway together before falling in love, are said to be feeling 'very blessed.'

The couple, whose relationship had not been previously reported, first worked together in 2019 on the indie psychological drama Black Bear, in which both actors played dual roles as actors and directors trying to shoot a film in an eerie, isolated lake house. 

The low-budget thriller premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020 to critical acclaim, with several reviewers singling it out as one of Plaza's best performances to date. 

She worked again with Abbott in 2023 – this time on stage – in the Off Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s play Danny And The Deep Blue Sea, which ran until January 2024. 

Plaza and her new partner were last seen together before the pregnancy news broke on February 14, when they attended Khaite's Fall/Winter 2026 show as part of New York Fashion Week. 

The two were pictured sitting side-by-side in the front row alongside stars including Elizabeth Debicki and Gemma Chan.

Prior to revealing her pregnancy, the Parks And Recreation star had managed to keep her relationship with Abbott under the radar.

According to DeuxMoi, a source had spotted Plaza and Abbot looking affectionate at Chatham Berry Farm in upstate New York last June, some five months after the death of Plaza's estranged husband.

They claimed that she was spotted speaking to a woman whom they later learned was Abbott's older sister, Christina Abbot, before she posted about a performance at the farm on Instagram. 

Plaza's pregnancy follows a tragic 2025, in which her estranged husband, Jeff Baena, died by suicide on January 3.

It was subsequently revealed that the couple had separated four months before his untimely death. 

An LA County Medical Examiner's autopsy report obtained by the Daily Mail revealed that the filmmaker and actress had separated in September 2024. She had been living in New York at the time his body was discovered.

The report detailed how the Life After Beth director had been 'experiencing marital difficulties' in his final months, and how he had been in therapy. 

An investigator noted in the documents that Plaza, whose name was redacted in the final report, said she had spoken with Baena the night before his death.

The report also tragically revealed that the actress had been concerned for her estranged husband's wellbeing.

'In October 2024, Baena made concerning remarks to [Plaza] which prompted her to call a friend to perform a welfare check on her husband. Baena had been attending therapy since that event,' the documents stated. 

The report determined that Baena did not have drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death. 

It stated that Plaza 'knew her husband to be alive' as of January 3 because he had sent her a text message that morning.

According to the report, it was a dog walker who discovered Baena's body after hearing loud music emanating from his house, which she said was 'unusual.' 

After she called the writer and director and didn't get an answer, she entered the home and discovered his body. 

In a statement to the Daily Mail at the time, a representative for the Plaza said: 'This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.'

Baena, who was known for hosting a popular series of game nights for friends and fellow filmmakers, met Plaza at one of the events in 2011, and the two began dating shortly afterward. 

Baena, who got his big break when he co-wrote David O. Russell's 2004 cult comedy I Heart Huckabees, later made his directing debut with the 2014 zombie comedy Life After Beth, which starred Plaza.

They reunited for 2016's Joshy and 2017's The Little Hours, which Plaza also produced, and she had a supporting role in his dark comedy thriller Spin Me Round, which starred Alison Brie, who co-wrote the film with Baena.

In 2018, Plaza told Page Six that her and Baena's mutual obsession with movies helped them bond and led to their subsequent creative and romantic partnership.

The couple quietly wed in 2020, and Plaza revealed that they were married while promoting Spin Me Round in 2021, when she referred to Baena on Instagram as her 'darling husband'.

Following his death, Plaza made her first public appearance when she introduced musical guests Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard on Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary special in February 2025.

She made a subtle but moving tribute to her late husband by wearing a tie-dye shirt, as they wore matching tie-dye pajamas at their low-key wedding after he picked up making the pattern as a hobby in the early days of the Covid pandemic.

Plaza began her career working in sketch comedy in the mid-2000s, before she began appearing in short films and online comedy videos later in the decade. 

She became a star almost overnight after Parks and Recreation debuted on NBC in 2009. Plaza played April Ludgate, the misanthropic assistant to Amy Poehler's bubbly bureaucrat.

The actress went on to become an in-demand film star with roles in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (which featured her ex-boyfriend Michael Cera), Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), Ingrid Goes West (2017, The Little Hours (which was directed by Baena), Happiest Season (2020), Emily The Criminal (2022) and My Old A** (2024). 

She also appeared as a villain in the X-Men spinoff series Legion (2017–2019), and she was part of the ensemble cast on the hit second season of HBO's The White Lotus in 2022. 

Last August Plaza opened up about the grief she had experienced during a conversation with her former co-star, Amy Poehler on her Good Hang podcast, which marked her first interview since Baena's death.

After Poehler referenced the death of her husband and asked how she was doing, Plaza replied: 'Right in this very, very present moment, I feel happy to be with you. Overall, I'm here, and I'm functioning. I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I'm OK, but it's like a daily struggle.'

She went on: 'This is a really dumb analogy, and it was kind of a joke at a certain point, but I actually mean it. Did you see that movie The Gorge? 

'It's like [an] alien movie or something with Miles Teller', she said, referring to the 2025 Apple TV+ science fiction thriller he appeared in with Anya Taylor-Joy and Sigourney Weaver.

She continued: 'In the movie, there's like a cliff on one side, and there's a cliff on the other side, then there's a gorge in between, and it's filled with all these, like, monster people that are trying to get them. I swear when I watched it . . . I was, like, that feels like what my grief is like . . . or what grief could be like. At all times there's, like, a giant ocean of awfulness, that's, like, right there, and I can see it...

'Sometimes I just want to dive into it, and just, like, be in it. Then sometimes I just look at it, and sometimes I try to get away from it. But, it's always there.'

If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.