All About Aubrey Plaza’s Late Husband, Jeff Baena

Aubrey Plaza has been with her husband, director Jeff Baena, for over a decade. On Jan. 4, 2025, Deadline, People, and TMZ reported that Baena had died on January 3 at age 47. “The family is devastated and asks for privacy at this difficult time,” Deadline wrote.

On January 6, Plaza and the Baena/Stern family released a statement on his death. “This is an unimaginable tragedy,” they said. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.”

Plaza and Baena have a long love story and kept their relationship mostly private.

In May 2021, Plaza dropped the news that she and Baena had gotten married when she referred to him as “my husband” in an Instagram post. She told GQ in November 2022 that the two quietly wed in 2020 during a quickie ceremony.

“So proud of my darling husband @jeffbaena for dreaming up another film that takes us to italia to cause some more trouble 😈 excited to be reunited with the amazing @alisonbrie (who also co-wrote this one!) and @theofficialsuperstar @sordociego @lauren_weedman and so many more fun people in this. Preparati!! 🇮🇹 ❤️,” she wrote.

She did not confirm when, exactly, she and Baena tied the knot initially. People confirmed with Plaza’s rep that she and Baena got married.

The usually private Plaza was never one to talk about her relationship on social media. Still, quite a bit is known about Baena and his history with Plaza. Here, what to know about the late director.

Per IMDB, Baena was born in Miami on June 29, 1977.

The director died on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in Los Angeles, according to TMZ. The family asked for privacy immediately following the news. “The family is devastated and asks for privacy at this difficult time,” Deadline wrote.

On January 6, Plaza and the Baena/Stern family released a statement, saying, “This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.”

On February 16, Plaza made her first public appearance since the loss of Baena at the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, SNL50. Plaza has a storied history with the comedy institution and she introduced a performance by Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard of “Nothing Compares 2 U,” in honor of the late Sinéad O’Connor.

While making her introduction, Plaza wore a tie-dyed shirt under her blazer, in a subtle nod to her husband’s fondness for the art.

“Jeff got really into tie-dying during the [COVID-19] quarantine,” the star told Drew Barrymore in an interview around the time of their marriage. “So I decided that Jeff and I were going to wear tie-dye pajamas that he had made for us.”

She added that she wore it with a “rosemary crown,” sharing, “I made, like, a love altar in the backyard of all our love objects [and] it was very witch-core.”

Baena has been making films for more than 15 years. He co-wrote the 2004 film I Heart Huckabees, directed by David O. Russell and starring Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Mark Wahlberg, Isabelle Huppert, and more.

His previous directing credits include 2016's Joshy, The Little Hours (2017), starring Brie and Dave Franco, and Horse Girl starring Brie and Molly Shannon.

They went on to work together on Showtime’s anthology series, Cinema Toast, and Plaza made her own directorial debut.

“It was very hectic while we were making the show because we were quarantined and Jeff, he created the show; it was his idea,” Plaza told People in 2021. “Our house became this strange post-production facility and he's downstairs on his Zooms or on his sessions and I'm upstairs editing, we're just going back and forth.”

Baena created the 2021 TV series Cinema Toast, starring Plaza, and Plaza played the main character in Baena’s directorial debut, Life After Beth (2014).

Some celebrity couples, including Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, have spoken about how quarantine has strengthened their relationship. Plaza said something similar about her and Baena to People.

“We were quarantined for months and months like everybody else,” she said. “And we did enjoy it. I think it was, obviously other than all of the catastrophic things happening in the world, just on a personal level, relationship level, was kind of nice to just be forced to be in one place for that long. Could have gone either way, I guess.”

In 2019, she also told People about what it is like to be in a relationship with someone else in the entertainment business.

“I think that when you’re with someone that is in your field, they understand what you're dealing with on a deeper level,” she said. “So obviously you are able to support each other and really understand kind of the journey that we're both on.”

To GQ in November 2022, Plaza spoke about how she could understand her The White Lotus character Harper, using her own relationship with Baena as a reference point.

She said she could relate to Harper as “I don’t have kids,” but has always wanted them and even thought about starting a family during the COVID-19 pandemic “but was alarmed by the apocalyptic state of the world,” GQ wrote.

She added, “I’ve been with my husband for 12 years. I relate to being in a relationship that has peaks and valleys, and going through a rough patch and comparing yourself to another couple that seems perfect.”

On Friday, July 5, the couple were photographed on a rare outing in Los Angeles taking a walk together. Plaza wore a white T-shirt with a V-neckline and a pair of shorts. She had on black sunglasses and a baseball cap and was carrying a water bottle for the hike in Griffith Park. Baena was wearing a blue T-shirt, cargo shorts, and a black baseball cap.

On the August 19 episode of Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, Plaza opened up about the loss of her husband, who passed away in January.

“Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning,” Plaza said. “I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I’m okay, but it’s a daily struggle, obviously.”

She added, “Right in this very, very present moment, I feel happy to be with you.”

Plaza compared the grieving process to a scene from the film The Gorge. “It's like [an] alien movie or something with Miles Teller. In the movie, there’s like a cliff on one side and there’s a cliff on the other side, then there’s a gorge in between, and it’s filled with all these like monster people that are trying to get them,” she explained.

“I swear when I watched it, I was like, that feels like what my grief is like—or what grief could be like—where at all times there’s like a giant ocean of awfulness, that’s right there, and I can see it. Sometimes I just want to dive into it, and just like, be in it. Then sometimes I just look at it, and sometimes I try to get away from it. But, it’s always there.”

With additional reporting by Hilary Weaver.