Actor Aubrey Plaza has spoken for the first time about the sudden death of her husband earlier this year, calling the grief “a giant ocean of awfulness”.

Writer and director Jeff Baena was found dead in his Los Angeles home in January, with a medical examiner’s report stating he died by suicide.

He was 47 years old.

Plaza spoke about her grief on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, with the pair having worked together for years on the sitcom Parks and Recreation.

In the interview, Plaza compared her grief to the horror film The Gorge, starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.

“In the movie, there’s a cliff on one side and a cliff on the other side then there’s like a gorge in between and it’s filled with all these monster people that are trying to get them,” she said.

“I swear when I watched it I was like, that feels like what my grief is like.

“At all times there’s a giant ocean of awfulness that’s right there and I can see it.

“Sometimes I just want to dive into it and just be in it. And then sometimes I just look at it. And then sometimes I just try to get away from it — but it’s always there.”

Grief a ‘daily struggle’

Plaza and Baena began dating in 2011 and the pair married in 2021.

In March, a medical examiner’s report confirmed the pair separated four months before Baena’s death.

Aubrey Plaza featured in multiple Jeff Baena films. (AP: Invision/Willy Sanjuan)

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

In 2009 she shot to fame on Parks and Recreation, working alongside Poehler as well Nick Offerman, Chris Pratt, and later Adam Scott.

In 2023, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role on the second season of The White Lotus, and then starred in the Marvel television series Agatha All Along.

She appeared on Poehler’s podcast to promote her latest film, Honey Don’t!, which also stars Margaret Qualley.

“Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning. I feel really grateful to be moving through the world,” Plaza said.

“But it’s like a daily struggle, obviously.”