A Look Again at Aubrey Plaza, Jeff Baena’s Relationship Timeline

Aubrey Plaza and Jeff Baena raved about their relationship of greater than a decade through the years — each on and off set.

After having been linked to the Parks and Recreation alum since 2011, and after they casually introduced their marriage a decade in a while Instagram, the filmmaker died at age 47 on Jan. 3, PEOPLE confirmed.

Whereas the couple remained comparatively non-public, each Baena and Plaza, 40, have opened up at instances prior to now about their connection in life and in movie.

Since assembly in 2011, Plaza has starred in lots of Baena’s movies, together with Life After Beth (2014), The Little Hours (2017) and Spin Me Spherical (2022). Additionally they teamed up on Plaza’s personal directorial debut, by way of discovered footage anthology sequence Cinema Toast, in 2021.

From their non-public early years to creatively navigating quarantine within the early 2020s, here is a glance again at Plaza and Baena’s relationship.

2011: Aubrey Plaza and Jeff Baena meet

The pair started relationship in 2011, although they’ve shared little about their early relationship. In response to a GQ profile of Plaza, she and Baena met over a sport of Balderdash.

Earlier than then, Plaza had beforehand dated Scott Pilgrim vs. The World costar Michael Cera. She informed Rolling Stone in 2023 that the pair almost “spontaneously took a detour and bought 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 on the 2014 Sundance Movie Pageant, months earlier than its official launch. With extra solid members together with Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Matthew Grey Gubler and John C. Reilly, the movie later got here out in August of that 12 months.

On prime of being Baena’s directorial debut, it additionally marked the duo’s first main team-up, previous a string of extra movies.

Recounting how the zombie comedy got here collectively, Baena informed an viewers at Sundance that he almost made the movie a decade earlier than with Joseph Gordon-Levitt within the boyfriend position, however Plaza helped convey the challenge collectively as soon as her identify was connected, per Flavorwire.

“It fell by, I walked away from it, however Aubrey’s agent was searching for a component for her, and he remembered this,” he mentioned on the time. “And he was like, ‘No matter occurred to that script?’ ”

Plaza remembered it equally in a dialog with Vulture in 2014, when she shared that ever since they’d been collectively, others had requested if she learn her companion’s Life After Beth script. “Nevertheless it was a script that also caught in lots of people’s minds, and one in every of my brokers on the time was a type of folks. And Jeff shouldn’t be the form of particular person — he doesn’t like speaking about work, we don’t speak about work that a lot,” Plaza mentioned.

“He’s not into enterprise stuff or no matter, so he’s by no means given me a script and been like, ‘Do that.’ So I form of needed to make him let me learn it. After which I learn it and it was so f—— good, and it felt excellent for me and he felt the identical manner, so then we began the method,” she added.

Of working along with her then-boyfriend, Plaza informed the outlet that she was “nervous” however it finally went “nice.”

“I used to be like, we’re both going to interrupt up or keep collectively eternally,” she joked. “It was nice, he’s an excellent director and that didn’t shock me both as a result of his mind is working on one other degree — he’s too good and he’s bought so many opinions and he’s a really assured person who all the time is aware of what he desires.”

June 30, 2017: The discharge of ‘The Little Hours’

Baena’s 2017 medieval comedy The Little Hours additionally marked one other team-up along with his future spouse, as his third directorial effort was each produced by and starred Plaza. Different actors within the challenge included Alison Brie, Dave Franco, John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon.

In a joint 2017 interview with Silver Display screen Riot, the director-actor duo have been requested if they might bounce concepts off one another because of how shut they have been.

“I don’t actually bounce concepts off anybody, actually,” Baena mentioned on the time. “It’s not by alternative, I’ve form of created this insulated house. Once I first got here up, I co-wrote with any person, so I used to be so used to bouncing concepts off of so I’ve that inside dialogue taking place versus externalizing.”

“With Aubrey, it’s extra about her character and what she’s going by and as a substitute of the film itself. However we don’t actually collaborate when it comes to co-writing stuff as of now,” he added.

Talking with MovieFreak.com across the identical time, Plaza mentioned that whereas she did not like “speaking tremendous private about our relationship,” she known as it “a tremendous expertise to work along with your companion on this manner.”

“I’ve labored with Jeff since his first film. I’ve seen him evolve and I’ve seen him develop. It’s a very particular dynamic that we’ve got,” she continued. “It’s difficult at instances, however it’s additionally actually rewarding to do one thing collectively like this. I don’t know what else to say.”

June 27, 2019: Plaza says their relationship ‘by no means will get stale’

Talking with PEOPLE in 2019 whereas selling Little one’s Play, Plaza shared some uncommon perception into her relationship.

“I believe that if you’re with somebody that’s in your area, they perceive what you’re coping with on a deeper degree. So clearly you’ll be able to help one another and actually perceive form of the journey that we’re each on,” Plaza mentioned. “So I believe that may be actually nice. However, you already know, working along with your companion can all the time be difficult. There’s loads of issues we do individually and I believe that it’s all about stability.”

“I believe that one of many nice issues about our careers is that we’re compelled to be unbiased, take little breaks, go off and do our issues and are available again,” she added. “So it’s form of enjoyable. Nothing is ever the identical. You don’t need to spend an excessive amount of time aside. However I believe that there’s a manner that it may work and there’s a stability in that.”

Feb. 14, 2020: A uncommon Valentine’s Day publish

Plaza paid tribute to her companion with a cheeky Valentine’s Day publish in 2020, that includes a picture of her holding a dagger as much as him on what seemed to be a movie set.

“And completely satisfied valentine’s day 🖤,” she captioned the Instagram snap.

April 20, 2021: ‘Cinema Toast’ and their ‘nice’ collab

In 2021, Plaza made her directorial debut in Showtime’s discovered footage anthology sequence, Cinema Toast, created by Baena. Talking with PEOPLE days later, she known as it a “nice” expertise working collectively once more — and in addition mirrored on their expertise amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was very hectic whereas we have been making the present as a result of we have been quarantined and Jeff, he created the present. It was his thought,” she mentioned.

“Our home turned this unusual post-production facility and he is downstairs on his Zooms or on his periods and I am upstairs modifying, we’re simply going backwards and forwards,” Plaza added. “Yeah, it was very us. We weren’t baking sourdough bread, however we have been sifting by hours of previous motion pictures and photographs and re-cutting them collectively and simply letting our minds go on a visit. So it was nice.”

Of quarantine, she added that they “did take pleasure in it,” explaining, “I believe it was, clearly apart from the entire catastrophic issues taking place on this planet, simply on a private degree, relationship degree, was form of good to only be compelled to be in a single place for that lengthy. Might have gone both manner, I suppose.”

Might 7, 2021: An off-the-cuff marriage announcement

In Might 2021, Plaza casually dropped the information of their marriage on Instagram, when she known as Baena her “darling husband” forward of the discharge of 2022’s Spin Me Spherical. A consultant for Plaza later confirmed the information with PEOPLE.

“So pleased with my darling husband @jeffbaena for dreaming up one other movie that takes us to italia to trigger some extra bother,” she wrote on the time.

Per GQ, the pair wed throughout what the publication described as a “quickie ceremony” in 2020.

Nov. 28, 2022: Plaza opens up about their relationship

Throughout a dialog with GQ, as she mentioned 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 mentioned. “I relate to being in a relationship that has peaks and valleys, and going by a tough patch and evaluating your self to a different couple that appears excellent.”