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Topics: Hollywood, Los Angeles, Mental Health, Celebrity, US News, Film and TV
Joe Yates
Topics: Hollywood, Los Angeles, Mental Health, Celebrity, US News, Film and TV
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Director Jeff Baena, the husband of Aubrey Plaza, has been found dead in his home.
On Friday (January 3), the body of the 47-year-old was discovered by one of his assistants with emergency services arriving at around 10.30am to investigate his death after pronouncing him dead at the scene.
A representative of Plaza issued the following statement: "The family is devastated and asks for privacy at this difficult time."
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Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office has confirmed Baena's cause of death as being a suicide at his and Plaza's Los Feliz property.
"Death was determined for an approximately 47-year old male, no transport," Los Angeles Fire Department told the Daily Mail in a statement.
While Los Angeles Police Department added: "We responded to the 2100 block of Fern Dale Place for a death investigation. Officers responded for a male decedent."
Baena, who was born in Miami, Florida, studied film at New York University before later moving to Los Angeles to pursue his career in Hollywood.
He has directed six films, the first being Life After Beth in 2014 which he wrote himself, in fact all of the films he's directed he's written the screenplay for.
The 2014 zombie comedy starred his wife Aubrey Plaza, who at the time he'd been dating for a few years.
In May 2021, Plaza revealed that the two had tied the knot as she referred to him as her husband in an Instagram post - with news finally breaking that the pair had a small wedding in 2020.
Her Instagram post read: “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!!"
The pair have worked together on numerous titles, including Cinema Toast, in which Plaza made her 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 is survived by his mother, Barbara Stern, stepfather Roger Stern, stepmother Michele Baena, brother Brad Banea and step siblings Bianca Gabay and Jed Fluxman.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact The Compassionate Friends on (877) 969-0010.