filmmaker and Aubrey Plaza’s husband was 47

Jeff Baena, the independent filmmaker who collaborated with his wife, Aubrey Plaza, on the projects The Little Hours and Life After Beth, has died at age 47.

A representative for Baena and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the news to Entertainment Weekly on Saturday. A cause of death was not given.

Born in Miami in 1977, Baena studied film at New York University and began his Hollywood career as a production assistant on Robert Zemeckis’ 2000 movies, Cast Away and What Lies Beneath. He made his screenwriting debut with 2004’s I Heart Huckabees, a collaboration with director David O. Russell that starred Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Wahlberg, and Naomi Watts.

Baena began dating Plaza in 2011, and the couple played versions of themselves in Mark Webber’s 2012 film, The End of Love, alongside actors like Alia Shawkat, Michael Cera, and Amanda Seyfried. He made his directorial debut with 2014’s Life After Beth, a comedy he wrote that followed a young man (Dane DeHaan) who must contend with his late girlfriend (Plaza) returning to his life as a zombie. The movie also starred John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Anna Kendrick, Matthew Gray Gubler, Paul Reiser, and Adam Pally.

After playing a minor role in Joe Swanberg’s Digging for Fire opposite Jake Johnson in 2015, Baena released 2016’s Joshy, a dark comedy that centered on a protagonist (Thomas Middleditch) whose friends (played by Pally, Alex Ross Perry, and Nick Kroll) attempt to cheer him up following the death of his fiancée (Alison Brie). Plaza, Lauren Graham, Jenny Slate, Reiser, Johnson, and Swanberg appeared in supporting roles. 

The filmmaker released his third directorial feature, The Little Hours, in 2017. The medieval comedy starred a number of Baena’s previous collaborators, including Plaza, Brie, Reilly, Shannon, Reiser, and Pally, as well as Dave Franco, Kate Micucci, and Fred Armisen.

In 2020, Baena wrote, directed, and produced Horse Girl, an offbeat psychological drama starring Brie as an odd introvert who experiences a series of inexplicable phenomena. Reiser, Shannon, and Gubler were again part of the supporting cast, along with Debby Ryan, Jay Duplass, and John Ortiz.

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Baena’s next project was 2021’s Cinema Toast, an experimental dramedy series he created for Showtime that featured directorial work from Plaza, Perry, Duplass, and Baena and appearances from Christina Ricci, Colman Domingo, Chloe Fineman, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Gillian Jacobs, Dan Stevens, Christopher Meloni, Alessandro Nivola, and Griffin Newman, as well as previous collaborators like Plaza, Brie, Armisen, Duplass, Shawkat, Micucci, and Offerman.

The filmmaker’s final project was 2022’s Spin Me Round, a dark comedy he wrote with Brie, who also starred in the film. The movie reunited Baena with Plaza, Shannon, Ryan, Armisen, and Nivola.

Baena is survived by Plaza; his mother, Barbara Stern; his stepfather, Roger Stern; his father, Scott Baena; his stepmother, Michele Baena; his brother, Brad Baena; his stepsister, Gabay Fluxman; and his stepbrother, Jed Fluxman.