The film industry is mourning the sudden loss of Jeff Baena, an acclaimed indie filmmaker and husband of actress Aubrey Plaza. Jeff Baena, a writer and director whose darkly comedic independent films included “The Little Hours” and who was married to Aubrey Plaza and often worked with her on projects, has died. He was 47 years old.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office said Baena was found dead in a home in Los Angeles on Friday morning. Saturday, it was still not clear how he died. The office said it was looking into it, and a full report would not be ready until the case is over.
“I Heart Huckabees,” which was directed by David O. Russell and written by Baena, came out in 2004. Baena also wrote and directed five other films, four of which had their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival.
He dated Plaza for three years before she played the lead role in his first movie as a director, the zombie comedy “Life After Beth,” which came out in 2014. In his next movie, “Joshy,” which came out in 2016, Thomas Middleditch played a man who gets together with his friends months after his fiancée kills herself.
As the son of a lawyer and a teacher, Baena grew up in Miami and went to New York University for film school. He talked to podcaster Marc Maron in 2017 and said that watching Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” and Federico Fellini’s “8 1/2” as a child got him interested in films.
“I’ve always been interested in things that are on the left,” he told Jim Alexander for the Reel Talker YouTube channel two years ago.
They talked about how “amazing” it was to work with Plaza, who has been in four of Baena’s five films. The 40-year-old actor and producer became famous for her role as April Ludgate on the TV show “Parks and Recreation.” For her work on “The White Lotus,” she was nominated for an Emmy. They got married in 2021.
“How often do we get the chance to create together, to do something creative that makes us both happy? “I’m so lucky that she’s down because she’s so talented,” Baena said.
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A spokesperson for Plaza said that Jeff Baena is survived by Plaza, his mother Barbara Stern, stepfather Roger Stern, father Scott Baena, stepmother Michele Baena, brother Brad Baena, and stepsiblings Bianca Gabay and Jed Fluxman. As well as Plaza.
