Filmmaker Jeff Baena, husband to actress Aubrey Plaza, has reportedly died at 47.
The director was best known for indie films like Life After Beth and The Little Hours.
He was also known for films like Joshy (2016), Horse Girl (2020), Spin Me Round (2022), and for co-writing I Heart Huckabees (2004).
According to TMZ, Los Angeles police and fire got a call from an assistant on Friday around 10:30 AM.
Arriving on the scene, they discovered Baena dead in an LA area home believed to belong to the couple.
Plaza—known for shows like Parks and Recreation and White Lotus—married Baena in 2021 after the pair had been together for a decade.
Baena frequently collaborated with actress Alison Brie as well as his wife, whom he worked with on Life After Beth and other projects.
His latest film, Spin Me Round, was a comedy starring Plaza, Brie, Debby Ryan, and Molly Shannon.
Baena was born and raised in Miami before attending film school at New York University. He later moved to LA to pursue directing, though he got his start as a writer.
When asked about his directorial debut, writing and directing the zombie film Life After Beth, Baena told Seensome in 2014: ‘It’s all I ever want to do; it felt really comfortable and fun.
‘I’ve been a writer for 12 years now, and it was always a means to an end. I never wanted to be a writer; I wanted to be a director, so this was always my intention, and it felt right.’
Baena often credited director David O. Russell with helping kickstart his career after a minor car accident while working as Russell’s assistant led to the pair falling into deep conversation.
He got a small piece of debris in his eye during the accident, and as Russell stepped in to help care for him, they got to talking about filmmaking.
This led to a collaboration that took Baena from an assistant to a screenwriter, as he eventually co-wrote I Heart Huckabees with Russell.
Baena and Plaza, 40, were a very private couple by Hollywood standards, with Plaza only announcing their marriage in an Instagram post in 2021.
Plaza has previously publicly praised her supportive husband, telling People: ‘I think that when you’re with someone that is in your field, they understand what you’re dealing with on a deeper level.
‘So, obviously, you are able to support each other and really understand kind of the journey that we’re both on.’
Metro reached out to the LAPD for comment.
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