--- title: Max Greenfield description: Celebrate Max Greenfield's birthday with his life, career and trivia, from playing Schmidt in New Girl to starring in The Neighborhood. canonical_url: https://marktheday.info/max-greenfield language: en-GB date: 2026-09-03T16:44:56Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://marktheday.info/max-greenfield. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 3011 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://marktheday.info/max-greenfield. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. Max Greenfield was born on September 4, 1980, in Dobbs Ferry, New York, a village in Westchester County just north of New York City. Long before millions of viewers knew him as Schmidt, Greenfield was a young actor trying to establish himself in an industry where steady employment can sometimes seem like an elaborate practical joke. He began working professionally around the turn of the millennium, taking the familiar route traveled by many television actors: small parts, guest appearances and the occasional recurring character that might actually pay the rent for more than a week. Early television credits included appearances in Boston Public, Gilmore Girls and The O.C., gradually building a résumé without anything resembling overnight fame. One of his first significant recurring television roles came on Veronica Mars, where he played Deputy Leo D'Amato. The character was a young sheriff's deputy who became romantically involved with Kristen Bell's teenage detective Veronica Mars. Greenfield first appeared during the show's original run and eventually returned to the character several times, including in the 2014 Veronica Mars movie and the later television revival. It was an important role for Greenfield because Leo demonstrated that he could be funny, charming and occasionally complicated without needing to dominate every scene. That particular restraint would become considerably less necessary a few years later when somebody handed him the role of Schmidt. Before that happened, however, Greenfield continued making his way through American television. He appeared as Nick Pepper on Ugly Betty, played Michael in the comedy series Modern Men and accumulated guest appearances on shows including Greek, Castle, Lie to Me, Melrose Place, Hot in Cleveland and Happy Endings. Then, in 2011, New Girl arrived. The Fox sitcom starred Zooey Deschanel as Jessica "Jess" Day, a newly single teacher who moves into a Los Angeles loft occupied by several men. Jake Johnson played Nick Miller, Lamorne Morris played Winston Bishop and Greenfield played Winston Schmidt—universally known simply as Schmidt. It did not take very long for Schmidt to become one of the show's breakout characters. On paper, he could easily have been unbearable. Schmidt was vain, competitive, obsessive about his appearance and enormously proud of his supposed sophistication. He had strong opinions about clothing, food, dating, household organization and almost anything else that happened to wander within speaking distance. When his behavior became particularly obnoxious, his roommates made him put money into the infamous "Douchebag Jar." The jar was busy. Greenfield's great achievement was making audiences care about Schmidt despite all of that. Beneath the designer clothes, boasting and spectacularly misguided declarations was a deeply insecure man who desperately wanted to be liked. Greenfield understood that contradiction and played it beautifully. Schmidt might spend five minutes explaining why everyone else was doing something incorrectly, but one wounded expression could reveal that the swagger was largely defensive armor. His performance quickly attracted serious industry attention. Greenfield was nominated for the 2012 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. The following year, he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor on television. He also earned Critics' Choice Television Award nominations for his work on the series. Schmidt's relationship with Cece Parekh, played by Hannah Simone, became one of the emotional centers of New Girl. What began largely as physical attraction developed into a complicated romantic relationship that survived breakups, jealousy, disastrous decisions and enough misunderstandings to keep a television writers' room comfortably employed for years. The relationship also allowed Greenfield to expand Schmidt beyond the original caricature. He remained ridiculous—thankfully—but matured as the series progressed. His friendship with Nick became particularly important, revealing a loyalty beneath all the bickering. Schmidt could complain about Nick's habits as though presenting evidence before the Supreme Court, but he loved him like a brother. Greenfield has said that improvisation played an important role in New Girl, and the show's loose comedic style allowed the cast to develop a distinctive chemistry. The loft increasingly felt less like a television set and more like an apartment occupied by people who had known one another long enough to have accumulated grievances about absolutely everything. Schmidt became especially famous for his peculiar pronunciations, extravagant reactions and remarkable ability to transform ordinary conversations into dramatic performances. A discussion about cookies, towels or clothing could suddenly acquire the urgency normally reserved for hostage negotiations. Greenfield played Schmidt throughout all seven seasons of New Girl, from the show's 2011 premiere until its finale in 2018. By the end, Schmidt had evolved considerably from the self-obsessed bachelor introduced in the first season. He married Cece, became a father and discovered that domestic life provided entirely new categories of things he could organize, criticize and worry about. While New Girl made him famous, Greenfield continued appearing in movies and other television projects. In 2014, he appeared in the romantic-comedy parody They Came Together, starring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. The following year he appeared in Adam McKay's The Big Short, the Oscar-winning film about the financial crisis. Greenfield played a mortgage broker whose enthusiastic description of disastrously irresponsible lending practices helps demonstrate just how badly things had gone wrong. It was not Schmidt, exactly, but there was enough alarming confidence involved to make viewers feel comfortably at home. Greenfield also appeared opposite Sally Field in Hello, My Name Is Doris, playing John Fremont, the considerably younger coworker who becomes the focus of Doris's romantic attention. The film gave Greenfield an opportunity to play a more restrained and fundamentally decent character while Field handled much of the eccentricity. His film credits have also included About Alex, A Futile and Stupid Gesture, What Men Want and Promising Young Woman. He has performed extensive voice work as well, including appearances in Bob's Burgers, BoJack Horseman and Robot Chicken, and provided the voice of Roger in Ice Age: Collision Course. Greenfield's next major sitcom role arrived immediately after New Girl ended. In 2018, he began playing Dave Johnson opposite Cedric the Entertainer in the CBS comedy The Neighborhood. Dave is an exceedingly friendly Midwesterner who moves his family into a predominantly Black neighborhood in Los Angeles and quickly discovers that his enthusiasm does not automatically make his new neighbor Calvin Butler enthusiastic about him. Where Schmidt tended to enter a room convinced that everyone should admire him, Dave often enters convinced that everyone should be friends. Calvin is not always convinced. The contrast between Greenfield and Cedric became central to the series. Dave is optimistic, eager and occasionally oblivious, while Calvin is skeptical, stubborn and considerably less interested in turning every interaction into a bonding experience. Their relationship gradually develops into genuine friendship while allowing the program to explore differences involving race, culture, family and community through the traditional machinery of the American sitcom. Greenfield has spoken appreciatively about working with Cedric and learning the particular rhythms of multi-camera comedy. Unlike New Girl, The Neighborhood was produced in the traditional sitcom format before a studio audience, something Greenfield had long wanted to experience. The role also proved that Greenfield could successfully follow Schmidt with a very different comedic character. Dave has his peculiarities, but he is not simply Schmidt relocated to another television show. Greenfield's comedy comes from a different place: earnestness rather than vanity, excessive friendliness rather than excessive confidence. Away from acting, Greenfield has also become a children's author. His books include I Don't Want to Read This Book, a wonderfully suspicious title for something being sold specifically as a book, followed by This Book Is Not a Present, I Don't Want to Read This Book Aloud and Good Night Thoughts. The books play with children's reluctance to read while using humor to make reading itself part of the joke. Greenfield married casting executive Tess Sanchez in 2008. The couple have two children, daughter Lily and son Ozzie. Fatherhood has become another frequent subject of Greenfield's interviews and comedy, and he has occasionally acknowledged that some of Schmidt's obsessive tendencies are not entirely foreign to him. Indeed, years after New Girl, Greenfield admitted that he shares Schmidt's fondness for organization. Apparently, even his refrigerator receives careful attention. There are worse character traits to bring home from work. Somewhere, Schmidt is undoubtedly pleased, although he would probably insist the yogurt is arranged incorrectly. Greenfield's career is a useful reminder that television success often arrives after years of work audiences never notice. Before New Girl, he had already spent more than a decade building credits through guest appearances, recurring roles and short-lived series. Schmidt may have looked like an overnight breakthrough, but Greenfield had done a considerable amount of groundwork before walking into that Los Angeles loft. The reward was a character audiences continue quoting years after the series ended. Schmidt could have been a one-note joke—the arrogant roommate everyone tolerated because the script required them to—but Greenfield turned him into something considerably better. He made Schmidt ridiculous without making him disposable. His Emmy and Golden Globe nominations confirmed what viewers had already discovered: Max Greenfield had found a way to make obnoxiousness remarkably lovable. And if there were an award for wearing a cardigan with completely unjustified authority, Schmidt would have retired the trophy. ```json { "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#paul_stallibrass_144f731fa4" }, "dateModified": "2026-09-03T16:44:56Z", "datePublished": "2026-09-03T04:36:49Z", "description": "Celebrate Max Greenfield's birthday with his life, career and trivia, from playing Schmidt in New Girl to starring in The Neighborhood.", "headline": "Max Greenfield", "image": { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#defaultLogo" }, "inLanguage": "en-GB", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/max-greenfield" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#defaultPublisher" }, "url": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/max-greenfield" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Paul Stallibrass", "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#paul_stallibrass_144f731fa4" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#defaultLogo", "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "", "width": 0, "height": 0 }, { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#defaultPublisher", "@type": "Organization", "url": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/", "logo": { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#defaultLogo" }, "name": "" } ] } ```