Jeff Baena, an indie film director and writer and Aubrey Plaza‘s husband, has died. He was 47.
The filmmaker died on Friday in his Los Angeles home, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. Law enforcement sources told TMZ Baena died by suicide, but no official cause of death has been shared.
Baena began his career when he co-wrote 2004’s I Heart Huckabees alongside director David O. Russell. The film, which was nominated for the Gotham Award for best feature, followed two “existential detectives,” who strived to solve the meaning of a series of strange coincidences.
He made his directorial debut in Life After Beth (2014), which he also wrote. It starred Plaza as the title character and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival that year, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and eventually released in theaters by A24. The filmmaker’s following project, Joshy, also bowed at Sundance and received a nod for the Grand Jury Prize before being released by Lionsgate.
Baena wrote and directed The Little Hours, which was nominated for the audience award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He also co-wrote, directed and produced 2020’s Horse Girl, which starred Dave Franco and Allison Brie, who also starred in and co-wrote Baena’s Spin Me Round (2022).
On the television side, Baena created, directed and executive produced Cinema Toast. The Showtime anthology series pieced together footage from movies that are now in the public domain, in an effort to tell new and unique stories. Brie, Christina Ricci, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Jake Johnson and more appeared in the show.
Plaza and Baena celebrated 10 years together when they wed during the pandemic in 2020. “We got a little bored one night. We got married and I’ll tell you how: Onehourmarriage.com. That’s real, look it up,” she explained on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in December 2021.
She said she negotiated to get an officiant to agree to drive to her home two hours later and perform the ceremony in their backyard.
In addition to Plaza, survivors include his mother, Barbara Stern, and stepfather, Roger Stern; father Scott and stepmother Michele Baena; brother Brad Baena; stepsister Bianca Gabay; and stepbrother Jed Fluxman.
Mike Barnes contributed to this report.