Aubrey Plaza has described coping with grief as a “daily juggle” following the death of her estranged husband, filmmaker Jeff Baena.
Baena died in January at the age of 47, with the Los Angeles County medical examiner ruling his death as suicide by hanging. He was found near the Fern Dell Nature Trail close to the Hollywood Hills.
Plaza Speaks on Podcast with Amy Poehler
Speaking on her Parks and Recreation co-star Amy Poehler’s podcast Good Hang, Plaza opened up about navigating loss.
She said: “Right in this very, very present moment, I feel happy to be with you.
“Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning. I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I’m ok, but it’s like a daily struggle, obviously.”
Plaza compared her grief to the 2025 movie The Gorge, starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.
‘Ocean of Awfulness’
She explained: “This is a really dumb analogy and it was kind of a joke at a certain point, but I actually mean it. Did you see that movie The Gorge? … In the movie, there’s 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 monster people that are trying to get them.
“I swear, when I watched it, I was like that feels like what my grief is like … or what grief could be like.
“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.”
Plaza and Baena’s Relationship
According to the Los Angeles County Coroner Investigator, Plaza and Baena separated in September 2024. The couple had been together since around 2011 and married during the Covid pandemic a decade later. Plaza once told The Ellen DeGeneres Show that they wed after getting “a little bored one night.”
The pair collaborated on several projects, including the 2014 horror Life After Beth and 2017 comedy The Little Hours.
Their Work and Legacy
Plaza is widely known for her role as April in Parks and Recreation, as well as her performances in The White Lotus, Agatha All Along, and films like Megalopolis, Ingrid Goes West, and Emily the Criminal.
Baena was a screenwriter and director whose credits included Horse Girl (2020), Spin Me Round (2022), and the anthology series Cinema Toast. He also co-wrote I Heart Huckabees (2004).