Aubrey Plaza: 'Stroke pushed me to succeed'

Actress Aubrey Plaza is convinced the stroke she suffered in her twenties made her "more aggressive" in achieving her dreams of stardom.

The Parks and Recreation star, 28, underwent speech therapy and battled anxiety attacks after the stroke, which happened while she was studying at New York University in the mid-2000s.

Plaza admits the health scare had a profound effect on her, but insists it helped put her life "in perspective".

She tells Britain's Guardian Weekend magazine, "It was one of the scariest things that's happened, but it never felt as if it was keeping me from doing anything.

"If anything, it made me more aggressive about getting things that I want. Maybe subconsciously I was feeling it was… not a near-death experience, but it put things in perspective."