Life does not always go according to plan — and Italia Ricci probably knows that better than most. The up-and-coming actress and native of Richmond Hill says she never pegged herself as the funny one, but as it so happens, she got her first break with a role in American Pie Presents Beta House (a spinoff of the popular teen comedy series). And, as most teen comedy romps do, Ricci’s story starts with a party.

“A friend of mine was an extra on a movie in Newmarket,” Ricci recalls. “And they were like, ‘Do you want to make 100 bucks pretending you’re at a party?’ I was like, yeah! The writer found me during lunchtime, and I auditioned for a role and I got it. It just sort of snowballed from there.”

That role led to stints on television, such as spots on How I Met Your Mother, House, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Greek. Currently, the actress is finishing up production on several projects that have her working with Hollywood heavyweights.

That includes Ricci cozying up to Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the actor’s directorial debut, Don Jon, which follows a modern-day Don Juan as he attempts to reforms his ways. The movie, slated for release later this year, was written and directed by Gordon-Levitt, who assumes the leading role. As fate would have it, once again Ricci fell into a part that she had not originally auditioned for.

“At first I auditioned to play [Gordon-Levitt’s] sister, which was interesting. Then I had a chemistry read with him, and it ended up going well, and then he offered me a different role,” she explains.

Ricci also just wrapped another campus comedy, R.A. Resident Advisor, in which a former student comes back to college as a resident advisor in an attempt to win back the love of a former flame (Ricci’s character). Though she calls it a play on the “American Pie of the heart,” the cast attempts to teach life lessons through outrageous, knee-slapping scenarios.

On the flip side, she’s currently filming a thriller called The Remaining and just finished the pilot for a dramatic television series. The pilot, filmed in Boston and tentatively titled Terminales, will air on ABC Family, also known as Sparks in Canada. Ask Ricci what her dream role would be, and she will tell you it is her character, April, on the yet-to-be-picked-up television series. In Terminales, Ricci plays a 23-year-old aspiring journalist, whose life is shaken after she is diagnosed with leukemia.

“It’s written so genuinely and the theme surrounding it is so wonderful — and it’s something I would love to be working on for as long as it goes,” she says. “I feel like at my age and my look right now there’s not a whole bunch of supermeaty roles for someone who is not in that tiny little pool of actors. So I feel extremely blessed that I was given the opportunity to play April.”

It is exactly this type of honest and layered role that she hopes to emulate on the big screen.

These days, the actress calls Los Angeles her home, but the Richmond Hill native continues to hold a deep connection to the 905. She still visits regularly for checkups at her dentist and to see her family, and she recalls spending days there with her grandfather, who used to take her to Mill Pond Park and Three Coins Open Kitchen on Yonge Street.

Ricci had planned to go to law school until high school drama classes sparked a passion for acting that led her to major in the subject at Queen’s University in Kingston. But she says she will never forget the way it all began, back in elementary school in Richmond Hill.

“I have friends coming from nowhere contact-ing me from my elementary school in Richmond Hill, and it’s just great to feel supported by all the people who I was touched by when I was there.”