Jeff Baena, the author and director behind indie movies akin to The Little Hours and Horse Girl, was discovered useless Friday in his Los Angeles dwelling. Married to The White Lotus star Aubrey Plaza, Baena first made his mark in Hollywood because the co-writer of David O. Russell’s 2004 film I Heart Huckabees. He was 47.
A graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Jeff Baena started his Hollywood profession as a manufacturing assistant for director Robert Zemeckis (Here), then pivoted to work within the unbiased house. In 2011, he and Plaza began relationship, and the pair grew to become common collaborators. Baena directed her in movies together with Life After Beth and 2022’s Spin Me Round.
“It’s an amazing experience to work with your partner in this way,” Plaza mentioned of her work with Baena in 2017. “I’ve worked with Jeff since his first movie. I’ve seen him evolve, and I’ve seen him grow. It’s a really special dynamic that we have. It’s challenging at times, but it’s also really rewarding to do something together.”
Though he started as a author, Baena mentioned that directing was at all times his purpose. “It’s all I ever want to do,” he mentioned in a 2014 interview. “It felt really comfortable and fun. I’ve been a writer for twelve 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.”
Plaza and Baena quietly married in 2021, with the previous revealing the information in an Instagram submit wherein she referred to Baena as “my darling husband.” In an look on The Ellen DeGeneres Show later that 12 months, Plaza joked that the nuptials occurred when “We got a little bored one night. We got married, and I’ll tell you how: Onehourmarriage.com. That’s real, look it up.” A yard ceremony, wherein the couple expressed vows in entrance of “a very quick love altar” adorned with “Facts of our love, little stones, smoke, fire. Things of that nature,” adopted.
Dispatchers despatched crews to Baena’s Los Angeles dwelling at round 10:30 a.m. yesterday, following a 911 name made (per TMZ) by Baena’s assistant. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office, Baena was unresponsive, and was pronounced useless on the scene. No trigger has been formally decided, officers say, and the investigation into his demise stays open. However, TMZ cites unnamed sources as saying that Baena died by suicide, however that element has not been formally confirmed as of publication time.
In addition to Plaza, Baena is survived by his mom Barbara Stern and stepfather Roger Stern, his father Scott Baena and stepmother Michele Baena, his brother Brad Baena, and his stepsister and stepbrother Bianca Gabay and Jed Fluxman. As of publication time, Baena’s household has not publicly commented on his demise, however Deadline stories that it “is devastated and asks for privacy at this difficult time.”
If you want emotional assist or are in disaster, name the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.