Jeff Baena, the writer and director behind indie films such as The Little Hours and Horse Girl, was found dead Friday in his Los Angeles home. Married to The White Lotus star Aubrey Plaza, Baena first made his mark in Hollywood as the co-writer of David O. Russell’s 2004 movie I Heart Huckabees. He was 47.

A graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Jeff Baena began his Hollywood career as a production assistant for director Robert Zemeckis (Here), then pivoted to work in the independent space. In 2011, he and Plaza started dating, and the pair became regular collaborators. Baena directed her in films including Life After Beth and 2022’s Spin Me Round.

“It’s an amazing experience to work with your partner in this way,” Plaza said of her work with Baena in 2017. “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. It’s challenging at times, but it’s also really rewarding to do something together.”

Though he began as a writer, Baena said that directing was always his goal. “It’s all I ever want to do,” he said in a 2014 interview. “It felt really comfortable and fun. I’ve been a writer for twelve years now and it was always a means to an end, I never wanted to be a writer, I wanted to be a director so this was always my intention and it felt right.”

Plaza and Baena quietly married in 2021, with the former revealing the news in an Instagram post in which she referred to Baena as “my darling husband.” In an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show later that year, Plaza joked that the nuptials happened when “We got a little bored one night. We got married, and I’ll tell you how: Onehourmarriage.com. That’s real, look it up.” A backyard ceremony, in which the couple expressed vows in front of “a very quick love altar” adorned with “Facts of our love, little stones, smoke, fire. Things of that nature,” followed.

Dispatchers sent crews to Baena’s Los Angeles home at around 10:30 a.m. yesterday, following a 911 call made (per TMZ) by Baena’s assistant. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office, Baena was unresponsive, and was pronounced dead at the scene. No cause has been officially determined, officials say, and the investigation into his death remains open. However, TMZ cites unnamed sources as saying that Baena died by suicide, but that detail has not been officially confirmed as of publication time.

In addition to Plaza, Baena is survived by his mother Barbara Stern and stepfather Roger Stern, his father Scott Baena and stepmother Michele Baena, his brother Brad Baena, and his stepsister and stepbrother Bianca Gabay and Jed Fluxman. As of publication time, Baena’s family has not publicly commented on his death, but Deadline reports that it “is devastated and asks for privacy at this difficult time.”

If you need emotional support or are in crisis, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.