Aubrey Plaza and Jeff Baena raved about their relationship of more than a decade over the years — both on and off set.
After having been linked to the Parks and Recreation alum since 2011, and after they casually announced their marriage a decade later on Instagram, the filmmaker died at age 47 on Jan. 3, PEOPLE confirmed.
While the couple remained relatively private, both Baena and Plaza, 40, have opened up at times in the past about their connection in life and in film.
Since meeting in 2011, Plaza has starred in many of Baena’s films, including Life After Beth (2014), The Little Hours (2017) and Spin Me Round (2022). They also teamed up on Plaza’s own directorial debut, via found footage anthology series Cinema Toast, in 2021.
From their private early years to creatively navigating quarantine in the early 2020s, here’s a look back at Plaza and Baena’s relationship.
2011: Aubrey Plaza and Jeff Baena meet
Aubrey Plaza and Jeff Baena attend a ‘Life After Beth’ party in Utah in 2014.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty
The pair began dating in 2011, though they’ve shared little about their early relationship. According to a GQ profile of Plaza, she and Baena met over a game of Balderdash.
Before then, Plaza had previously dated Scott Pilgrim vs. The World costar Michael Cera. She told Rolling Stone in 2023 that the pair nearly “spontaneously took a detour and got married” in Las Vegas.
Aug. 15, 2014: ‘Life After Beth’ releases
In January 2014, Baena’s directorial debut Life After Beth — which starred Plaza — premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, months before its official release. With additional cast members including Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Matthew Gray Gubler and John C. Reilly, the film later came out in August of that year.
On top of being Baena’s directorial debut, it also marked the duo’s first major team-up, preceding a string of additional films.
Recounting how the zombie comedy came together, Baena told an audience at Sundance that he nearly made the film a decade before with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the boyfriend role, but Plaza helped bring the project together once her name was attached, per Flavorwire.
“It fell through, I walked away from it, but Aubrey’s agent was looking for a part for her, and he remembered this,” he said at the time. “And he was like, ‘Whatever happened to that script?’ ”
Plaza remembered it similarly in a conversation with Vulture in 2014, when she shared that ever since they’d been together, others had asked if she read her partner’s Life After Beth script. “But it was a script that still stuck in a lot of people’s minds, and one of my agents at the time was one of those people. And Jeff is not the kind of person — he doesn’t like talking about work, we don’t talk about work that much,” Plaza said.
“He’s not into business stuff or whatever, so he’s never given me a script and been like, ‘Do this.’ So I kind of had to make him let me read it. And then I read it and it was so f—— good, and it felt perfect for me and he felt the same way, so then we started the process,” she added.
Of working with her then-boyfriend, Plaza told the outlet that she was “nervous” but it ultimately went “great.”
“I was like, we’re either going to break up or stay together forever,” she joked. “It was great, he’s a great director and that didn’t surprise me either because his brain is operating on another level — he’s too smart and he’s got so many opinions and he’s a very confident person that always knows what he wants.”
June 30, 2017: The release of ‘The Little Hours’
Aubrey Plaza and Jeff Baena arrive at the 2017 Los Angeles Film Festival screening of ‘The Little Hours’.
Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Baena’s 2017 medieval comedy The Little Hours also marked another team-up with his future wife, as his third directorial effort was both produced by and starred Plaza. Other actors in the project included Alison Brie, Dave Franco, John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon.
In a joint 2017 interview with Silver Screen Riotthe director-actor duo were asked if they would bounce ideas off each other due to how close they were.
“I don’t really bounce ideas off anyone, honestly,” Baena said at the time. “It’s not by choice, I’ve sort of created this insulated space. When I first came up, I co-wrote with somebody, so I was so used to bouncing ideas off of so I have that inner dialogue happening as opposed to externalizing.”
“With Aubrey, it’s more about her character and what she’s going through and instead of the movie itself. But we don’t really collaborate in terms of co-writing stuff as of now,” he added.
Speaking with MovieFreak.com around the same time, Plaza said that while she didn’t like “talking super personal about our relationship,” she called it “an amazing experience to work with your partner in this way.”
“I’ve worked with Jeff since his first movie. I’ve seen him evolve and I’ve seen him grow. It’s a really special dynamic that we have,” she continued. “It’s challenging at times, but it’s also really rewarding to do something together like this. I don’t know what else to say.”
June 27, 2019: Plaza says their relationship ‘never gets stale’
Jeff Baena and Aubrey Plaza attend Lisa Edelstein’s birthday in May 2016 in Silverlake, CA.
David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty
Speaking with PEOPLE in 2019 while promoting Child’s Play, Plaza shared some rare insight into her relationship.
“I think that when you’re with someone that is in your field, they understand what you’re dealing with on a deeper level. So obviously you are able to support each other and really understand kind of the journey that we’re both on,” Plaza said. “So I think that can be really great. 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.”
“I think that 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,” she added. “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.”
Feb. 14, 2020: A rare Valentine’s Day post
Plaza paid tribute to her partner with a cheeky Valentine’s Day post in 2020, featuring an image of her holding a dagger up to him on what appeared to be a film set.
“And happy valentine’s day 🖤,” she captioned the Instagram snap.
April 20, 2021: ‘Cinema Toast’ and their ‘great’ collab
Jeff Baena, and Aubrey Plaza promote ‘The Little Hours’ at Build Studio on June 29, 2017.
Monica Schipper/FilmMagic
In 2021, Plaza made her directorial debut in Showtime’s found footage anthology series, Cinema Toast, created by Baena. Speaking with PEOPLE days later, she called it a “great” experience working together again — and also reflected on their experience amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was very hectic while we were making the show because we were quarantined and Jeff, he created the show. It was his idea,” she said.
“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,” Plaza added. “Yeah, it was very us. We were not baking sourdough bread, but we were sifting through hours of old movies and footage and re-cutting them together and just letting our minds go on a trip. So it was great.”
Of quarantine, she added that they “did enjoy it,” explaining, “I think it was, obviously other than all of the catastrophic things happening in the world, just on a personal level, relationship level, was kind of nice to just be forced to be in one place for that long. Could have gone either way, I guess.”
May 7, 2021: A casual marriage announcement
In May 2021, Plaza casually dropped the news of their marriage on Instagram, when she called Baena her “darling husband” ahead of the release of 2022’s Spin Me Round. A representative for Plaza later confirmed the news with PEOPLE.
“So proud of my darling husband @jeffbaena for dreaming up another film that takes us to italia to cause some more trouble,” she wrote at the time.
Per GQthe pair wed during what the publication described as a “quickie ceremony” in 2020.
Nov. 28, 2022: Plaza opens up about their relationship
During a conversation with GQ, as she discussed her The White Lotus character of Harper, Plaza spoke briefly about her relationship with Baena.
“I’ve been with my husband for 12 years,” she said. “I relate to being in a relationship that has peaks and valleys, and going through a rough patch and comparing yourself to another couple that seems perfect.”
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