Aubrey Plaza has spoken out following the tragic death of her husband, Jeff Baena, who was found at his Los Angeles home on Friday after taking his own life.
The 47-year-old writer and director was best known for his work on comedies including co-writing 2004’s I Heart Huckabees, and directing 2014’s Life After Beth and 2017’s The Little Hours, both of which starred Plaza.
The actress, who has starred in the hit TV series such as The White Lotus season two and Agatha All Along, had been dating Baena since 2011. The pair married a decade later in 2021 to celebrate their anniversary together.
Plaza did not attend the Golden Globes held in California on Sunday. Before her husband’s death, she had been scheduled to present an award at the ceremony.
She had no individual nominations at this year’s Globes. Her Agatha All Along co-star Kathryn Hahn was up for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy .
“This is an unimaginable tragedy,” the actor and Baena’s family said in a joint statement shared with media on Monday. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.”
Plaza, who broke through with her recurring role on the television show Parks and Recreation, won acclaim for her performance in season two of The White Lotus and the film My Old Ass. She also appeared in Baena’s latest film, 2022’s Spin Me Round.
During his acceptance speech for best director, The Brutalist director, Brady Corbet, paid tribute to Baena, saying: “Finally, tonight my heart is with Aubrey Plaza and Jeff’s family.”
Baena died by suicide on Friday, January 3, aged 47.
He made his directorial debut by writing and directing Life After Beth, a zombie comedy starring Plaza, and then created an anthology series titled Cinema Toast, which aired on Showtime in 2021 and marked Plaza’s own directorial debut.
Fans only learned that the two had tied the knot in May 2021, when Plaza, 40, referred to Baena as her "darling husband" in an Instagram post.
In September, she spoke to NPR about what she would tell her 18-year-old self.
“I’ve thought about it a lot,” she said. “I think I would tell her to, like, enjoy the ride a little bit more. I think I was so ambitious as a young person. And I was so tortured and wanting my dreams to come true so bad and all of these things that, like, I don’t know.
“I would just probably say, like, be in the moment. Enjoy it. You know, it’s all going to kind of unravel and work out the way it’s supposed to.
“I do live in the moment. I think having perspective on, like, my career and, like, where I’m at in that way—like, I have a hard time with that because I, in my mind, I’m, like, moving right along.
“Moving right along, going to the next thing or whatever, like, I don’t have, perspective on that. But I’m able to, like, be in the very, you know, tiny moments.”
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