Max Greenfield

Actor Max Greenfield vaulted to fame with his Emmy-nominated performance as the acerbic, eccentric Schmidt on "New Girl" (Fox, 2011-18), which led to roles in features and other television series like "The Neighborhood" (CBS, 2018-). Born in Dobbs Ferry, New York, he moved to Los Angeles, California after spending a year at an art college in his home state. Greenfield decided to dabble in acting, and soon advanced from work as an extra to guest roles on "Gilmore Girls" (The WB/CW, 2000-07) and in independent features like "When Do We Eat?" (2004). In 2005, he earned critical praise for his recurring turn as Leo D'Amato, a duplicitous sheriff's deputy on "Veronica Mars" (UPN/The CW, 2004-07), which briefly led to a starring role in his own series, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced "Modern Men" (The WB, 2006). He soon returned to guest roles, where he again found favor with viewers and critics for both comic and dramatic turns on "The O.C." (Fox, 2003-07), for which he played a younger version of Peter Gallagher's Sandy Cohen, and as the much-loathed assistant Nick Pepper on "Ugly Betty" (ABC, 2006-2010). In 2011, Greenfield landed his breakout role as Schmidt on "New Girl." Initially envisioned as a garden-variety cad, Greenfield's performance, earmarked by flawless timing and biting delivery, quickly earned a fan following, and the show's producers gave the character a wounded soul and considerable heart, especially in regard to Hannah Simone's Cece, with whom he would father two children by the series' final season. Greenfield would earn Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his turn as Schmidt, which in turn would lead to expanded opportunities in feature films like "Hello, My Name is Doris" (2015), as the crush object of shy office worker Sally Field, and "The Big Short" (2015), as well as producing duties on the 2017 Ice Cube comedy "Fist Fight." He also continued to lend his talents to other television projects, and drew critical praise for appearances in decidedly un-Schmidt-like roles: on "American Horror Story: Hotel" (FX, 2015), he was a drug addict violated by the titular location's monster-in-residence, the Addiction Demon, and on "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" (FX, 2018), his down-and-out hustler befriended serial killer in training Andrew Cunanan. After "New Girl" completed its seventh and final season, Greenfield joined the cast of "The Neighborhood," a CBS sitcom that pitted tough Los Angeles resident Cedric the Entertainer against his new neighbor, an exceedingly nice Midwesterner played by Greenfield.