Brother of Aubrey Plaza’s husband Jeff Baena shares he is ‘broken’ after the film director’s tragic death

The brother of Aubrey Plaza’s husband Jeff Baena has shared that he is “heartbroken” following the film director’s tragic death.

Jeff died by suicide at the Los Angeles home he shared with his actress wife Aubrey on Friday.

Commenting under a post from Jeff’s friend Adam, Brad Baena wrote, “I’m heartbroken.”

In an update following his death, the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office said the 47-year-old died by hanging at their Los Feliz property.

His body was discovered by an assistant at the home they bought in 2022 and officers responded to the home at 10:25 a.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department told DailyMail.com.

“The death of an approximately 47-year-old man was confirmed, no transportation,” they said in a statement.

“We responded to the 2100 block of Fern Dale Place for a death investigation. Officers responded to a male deceased,” the Los Angeles Police Department added. The Life After Beth director was pronounced dead at the scene.

Baena’s family told them Term that they are devastated by the news and ask for privacy at this time.

The pair were last seen together on a walk last summer, six months before his tragic suicide. On July 5, they were spotted taking a walk in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park.

Dressed in casual walking clothes, the couple appeared relaxed in each other’s company as they visited the park, a favorite among locals.

Baena got into film after graduating from New York University with a film degree and moving to LA to launch his career.

He worked at a low level for major directors, including Robert Zemeckis and David O. Russell, as he gained a foothold in the industry. He worked as a production assistant for Zemeckis and as an assistant editor for Russell.

He is best known for directing Life After Beth, his directorial debut, which starred Plaza, and The Little Hours.

Baena also co-wrote I Heart Huckabees, which was nominated for a 2004 Gotham Award for Best Feature Film.

He also wrote Life After Beth, which premiered at Sundance in 2014. His film Joshy also premiered at the famous festival and was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize.

The Miami native also worked on Horse Girl and Spin Me Round.

Before his television works, he directed and produced the Showtime series Cinema Toast. He co-directed the product with his wife.

He had also previously spoken candidly about mental health ahead of the release of his 2020 film Horse Girl.

He was asked on a Reddit Ask Me Anything forum whether the film’s protagonist, Sarah, played by Alison Brie, to have been released from the psychiatric hospital and whether the scene was based on personal experiences.

Baena openly admitted that he watched his stepmother suffer from bipolar disorder, saying: “Unfortunately, people are released all the time while still in need of treatment,” he wrote in February 2020.

‘The mandatory 72-hour waiting period only applies to patients who pose a risk to themselves, so they must be released after that assessment period.

“My first stepmother had manic depression and was in and out of facilities in Miami due to the Baker Act (5150 in California).

“While I wouldn’t consider ‘Horse Girl’ an activist film, the themes of how we as a society and individuals treat people with mental illness were a major focus and motivation for making this film.”

Baena and Brie co-wrote the film about the latter’s family history with mental illness, particularly the actress’ grandmother, who suffered from schizophrenia.

“That was the original impetus for writing a story like this,” Brie, who is married to actor Dave Franco, wrote on the forum.

The director and husband of Aubrey Plaza also said that his family history with mental illness also influenced the film’s plot.

He secretly married The White Lotus star in 2020, almost a decade after they met, keeping their relationship largely out of the spotlight.

Plaza has not commented publicly on her husband’s death.

The actress’s latest Instagram post with her husband showed how “proud” she was of him.

In her last post with Baena, shared in May 2021, the award-winning actress praised her “sweet husband.”

“So proud of my sweet husband @jeffbaena for coming up with another movie that takes us to Italy to cause even more trouble,” she captioned the post.

The heartbreaking final post together saw the star couple gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes and was accompanied by screenshots from a Deadline article detailing their “new assignment”: the 2022 film Spin Me Round.

Baena is survived by his wife, his mother Barbra Stern, stepfather Roger Stern, his stepmother Michele Baena, his brother Brad Baena and his step-siblings Bianca Gabay and Jed Fluxman.

Aubrey was enjoying a New York Knicks Game just two days before his tragic death.

The actress sat front row at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on New Year’s Day to watch the home team play the Utah Jazz.

In a photo shared to the Knicks’ Instagram, Plaza was pictured wearing jeans, a black corduroy jacket and an orange cap over her straight, brunette locks.

“We’re starting the new year with our friends on the field,” the organization wrote alongside a carousel of high-profile fans including Tracee Ellis Ross, Judd Apatow, Leslie Mann and their daughter Maude and Keenan Michael Key.

It comes as Aubrey was scheduled to present at the 2025 Golden Globes, prior to the tragic death.

Earlier this week, the actress was announced as one of several stars, including Andrew Garfield, Demi Moore, Gal Gadot and Nicolas Cage, who would take the stage during Sunday’s show at the awards show’s 82nd annual ceremony.

It’s highly unlikely that the Parks and Recreation star will still host or attend the Golden Globes, which will take place just two days after her husband’s death.

DailyMail.com contacted its representatives but did not hear back.

Plaza has not commented publicly on her husband’s death.

Last year, the actress earned her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Television Series/Movie for her role as Harper Spiller in White Lotus.

Aubrey shared rare insights about marriage to Jeff during a recent interview with Howard Stern.

She talked about her marriage to a writer-director while she was performing The Howard Stern Show about three months ago.

In the September 2024 radio program she spoke about maintaining friendships and relationships in her work.

When Stern suggested that marrying a filmmaker instead of an actor was “better for.” [her]the Parks and Recreation alum agreed.

She also shared that she is generally “happy” despite Stern pulling out.

When Stern insinuated that her job “didn’t bring you the happiness you thought it would bring,” she said with a laugh, “It’s lonely at the top.”

“I don’t know how much of a joke this is, but it sounds like you’re not very happy,” he told her.

‘I really don’t know. I can’t tell you what’s real or not. That’s my problem.’

When Stern asked if she has any friends that she “doubts are really your friends,” she replied, “No, I’m a pretty selective friend.”

“Like, a lot of my friends are friends that I’ve had since, you know, I was in high school or whatever. I mean, I have new friends too, but I don’t go there to make friends.

He then asked her what she doubted was real, and she replied that it was her ‘feelings’.

The White Lotus star explained how being an actor means she is good at “manipulating her feelings,” a trait Stern says is “dangerous.”

He talked about confusing feelings and asked her how she felt competitive about dating someone else in the same career.

She said she “never really dated an actor, been with an actor for a long time or anything like that.”

In 2021, she also spoke fondly of him while talking about her work and life partners with him.

While he appeared on The Drew Barrymore Showshe also spoke about their spontaneous wedding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s so amazing, it’s so complicated,” she told the talk show host and fellow actor.

“It’s extreme peaks and extreme, you know, complications. It’s very difficult to navigate, but we’ve been together for eleven years. We’re just struggling through it.’

She also shared how they got married in the tie-dye pajamas he made for them in their backyard during the pandemic.

That same year, she also told People that the Covid-19 pandemic has strengthened their relationship.

“We were quarantined for months like everyone else,” she said. ‘And we enjoyed it. I think, aside from all the catastrophic things happening in the world, on a personal level and on a relationship level, it was kind of nice to be forced to stay in one place for so long.”

Plaza recalled that they spontaneously tied the knot in front of an “altar of their love objects.”

Plaza recorded the interview with Stern in September 2024, just months before her husband was found dead