Actor Aubrey Plaza has spoken out after the death of her husband, screenwriter and director Jeffrey Baena, at the weekend.

Baena, 47, died on January 3 in an incident that has been ruled as suicide by the Los Angeles county medical examiner.

His body was found at a home close to the Fern Dell Nature Trail near the Hollywood Hills.

“This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support,” Plaza and the Baena/Stern families said on Monday (US time).

“Please respect our privacy during this time.”

Baena co-wrote David O Russell’s 2004 film I Heart Huckabees and wrote and directed five of his own films, mostly dark comedies.

Plaza starred in his directorial debut, the 2014 zombie comedy Life After Beth, and appeared in two of his other films: The Little Hours and Spin Me Round.

They also worked together on the  Cinema Toast, which marked Plaza’s directorial debut.

“She’s awesome. I’d be working with her if she wasn’t my wife, but luckily she is my wife,” Baena told Reel Talker of Plaza in August 2022.

“The opportunity to do something creative [together] where we’re both fulfilled – how rare is that?”

Plaza, who rose to fame in comedy series Parks And Recreation, had been named as a presenter at the Golden Globes, before her husband’s death.

She did not attend Sunday’s ceremony. The Brutalist filmmaker Brady Corbet used his acceptance speech after winning best director for a motion picture drama to offer his condolences.

“My heart is with Aubrey Plaza, and Jeff’s family,” he said.

Plaza was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2023 for her role in the second series of HBO dark comedy White Lotus and is also known for Disney+ series Agatha All Along.

She has also starred in hit films including Megalopolis, My Old Ass, Ingrid Goes West, Dirty Grandpa and Emily The Criminal.

The actress told The Ellen DeGeneres Show in December 2021 she and Baena “got a little bored one night” during the Covid pandemic and decided to wed after celebrating their 10th anniversary.

She said that after finding a wedding officiant online to perform the ceremony in their garden, she “created a very quick love altar in our yard” where they married.

She also once said that working in the same industry allowed her and Baena to empathise and understand each other on a deep level.

“Obviously, you are able to support each other and really understand kind of the journey that we’re both on. But, you know, working with your partner can always be challenging. There’s a lot of things we do separately and I think that it’s all about balance,” Plaza told People magazine in 2019.

“One of the great things about our careers is that we are forced to be independent, take little breaks, go off and do our things and come back.

“So it’s kind of fun. Nothing is ever the same. You don’t want to spend too much time apart. But I think that there’s a way that it can work and there’s a balance in that.”

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