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Writer and director Jeff Baena, whose darkly comedic independent films included The Little Hours and who was married to his frequent creative collaborator Aubrey Plaza, has died. He was 47.
Baena was found dead at a Los Angeles home on Friday morning, according to the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The circumstances of his death remained unclear Saturday, and the office said it was investigating and a full report would not be available until the case is closed.
Baena co-wrote David O Russell’s 2004 film I Heart Huckabees and wrote and directed five of his own films, four of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
He had been dating Plaza for three years before she starred in his 2014 directorial debut, the zombie comedy Life After Beth.
Jeff Baena and Aubrey Plaza at the premiere of their film in 2014. Source: AAP / AP
The son of an attorney and teacher, Baena grew up in Miami and attended film school at New York University before moving to Los Angeles.
He told podcaster Marc Maron in a 2017 interview that his interest in cinema was sparked after watching Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 as a child.
“I was always drawn to left-of-centre things,” he said in an interview for the Reel Talker YouTube channel.
Baena said in the same interview that it was “amazing” to work with Plaza, who appeared in four of his five films.
The 40-year-old actor and producer rose to fame playing April Ludgate on the television series Parks and Recreation and was nominated for an Emmy for her role on The White Lotus. The couple married in 2021.
“The opportunities to create together, to do something creative where we’re both fulfilled, it’s like how rare is that? She’s down, and she’s so talented, so I’m really lucky,” Baena said.
A representative for Plaza said Baena is survived by his mother and stepfather Barbara and Roger Stern, father and stepmother Scott and Michelle Baena, brother Brad Baena and stepsiblings Bianca Gabay and Jed Fluxman.
