Indie Film Director and Aubrey Plaza’s Husband was 47

Jeff Baena, an indie movie director and author and Aubrey Plaza‘s husband, has died. He was 47.

The filmmaker died Friday in his Los Angeles dwelling, based on the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Workplace. Regulation enforcement sources advised TMZ he died by suicide, however no official explanation for demise has been shared.

Baena’s breakthrough got here when he co-wrote I Coronary heart Huckabees (2004) alongside director David O. Russell. The movie, nominated for the Gotham Award for greatest function, adopted two “existential detectives” who attempt to unravel the which means of a sequence of unusual coincidences.

He made his directorial debut in Life After Beth (2014), which he wrote as nicely. It starred Plaza because the title character and premiered on the Sundance Movie Competition that 12 months, when it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and finally launched in theaters by A24. His subsequent venture, Joshy (2016), starring Thomas Middleditch, additionally bowed at Sundance with a Grand Jury nom earlier than being launched by Lionsgate.

Baena additionally wrote and directed the Plaza-starring The Little Hours (2017), nominated for the viewers award on the Edinburgh Worldwide Movie Competition, and co-wrote, directed and produced Horse Woman (2020), which starred Dave Franco and frequent collaborator Allison Brie. Each these movies debuted at Sundance as nicely.

He then co-wrote and directed the 2022 romantic comedy Spin Me Spherical, starring Brie and Plaza.

On the tv facet, Baena created, directed and govt produced Cinema Toast. The 2021 Showtime anthology sequence pieced collectively footage from films that are actually within the public area. Brie, Christina Ricci, Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph and Jake Johnson have been amongst these to seem on the present.

Baena was born in Miami on June 29, 1977. He graduated from New York College Movie Faculty and headed to Los Angeles to start a profession in movie. He landed a job as a manufacturing assistant for Robert Zemeckis and labored on a number of of his movies earlier than touchdown a gig as an assistant editor for Russell.

Plaza, 40, and Baena celebrated 10 years collectively after they wed in the course of the pandemic in 2020. “We acquired a little bit bored one night time. We acquired married and I’ll inform you how: Onehourmarriage.com. That’s actual, look it up,” she defined on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Present in December 2021.

She stated she negotiated to get an officiant to drive to her dwelling two hours later and carry out the ceremony of their yard.

The couple labored collectively on 5 movies, beginning with The Finish of Love (2012).

Along with Plaza, survivors embrace his mom, 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.