Girlboss Zooey Deschanel

Who's that girl? We all know the answer to this one. With her kooky personality and love of the almighty Peter Pan collar, Zooey Deschanel's New Girl protagonist Jess Day encapsulated the twee chic and adorkable indie comedy stylings of the early 2010s. Emboldened by her equally quirky roommates, Jess was never too far away from concocting a harebrained scheme or subjecting herself to a very public faux pas. 

New Girl was perhaps the ultimate millennial sitcom. A bunch of pals in their 30s renting an apartment together is arguably more relatable in the post-Covid era than when the series debuted in 2011. With people renting with friends, rather than purchasing their own homes, being at an all time high due to rocketing property prices, most of us can relate to the complexities of being forced to share a space with idiosyncratic pals — and all the oddities that come with it.

From the principal cast members to the larger array of supporting characters, there was no shortage of special cameos and A-list talent in the hit comedy. As sitcoms are traditionally seen as a vehicle to launch an actor's career, New Girl has propelled some of its otherwise lesser known and emerging talents onto illustrious stardom. Since its finale in 2018, the show's cast have achieved varying degrees of success. From action-packed podcasts to Instagram influencing, let's see what the cast of New Girl is up to today.

She & Him

On New Girl, Nick was always sort of like a PG-13 rated version of Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia — an eternal manchild ready to rant in a bizarre half-hearted shriek at any minor inconvenience (Bustle even posed a theory that New Girl is IASIP in a more wholesome dimension). Jake Johnson played Nick with aplomb, but these days he's eager to take on dual acting and writing duties. 

In 2021, he partnered with filmmaker Trent O'Donnell to write the low-key comedy Ride the Eagle, in which he also starred. In the midst of the pandemic, while missing everyone, Trent O'Donnell and I wanted to make a movie about people coming together, Johnson said, per The Wrap. We also want to introduce the greatest actor of our generation: my dog Nora. Per his IMDb page, he has two more writing projects in post-production: The Henchmen, which he penned with his New Girl co-star Damon Wayans Jr., and the comedy Catalina.

Aside from his writing work, Johnson is among an increasingly lengthy list of actors who have joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He lent his voice to 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, playing one of many incarnations of the titular superhero, and is set to reprise the role in the upcoming sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, per Rotten Tomatoes. On the small screen, he was praised for his role in the 2022 HBO series Minx, which The Guardian hailed as a joyful feminist porn comedy.

These Are Our 6 Favorite Zooey Deschanel Moments In Honor Of Her Birthday

Who couldn't warm to the original crazy cat dude, Winston? Even when he was plotting his ridiculous schemes under his Prank Sinatra alias (lest we forget him registering BFF Nick as a sex offender), Winston was unwaveringly lovable, testament to Lamorne Morris' acting talents. It's unsurprising, then, that Morris has starred in a number of acclaimed films since the New Girl finale.

In 2019, he worked with Oscar-winning British director Danny Boyle on his romcom Yesterday, playing the head of a music label who struggles to understand the appeal of the Beatles in the modern day (Morris lamenting that The White Album is too, well, white was pinpointed as a highlight of the film). When the pandemic hit, Morris didn't let quarantine stifle his creativity. He launched the scripted, '80s nostalgia-fueled action podcast Unwanted, focusing on the efforts of two slacker pals in apprehending a murderer. We grew up on 'Lethal Weapon' and 'Beverly Hills Cop' and 'Die Hard' and every Jean-Claude van Damme film... I wasn't able to be an actor back then and I'm upset about it, Morris joked to People. 

Additionally, in 2020, he scored his first lead sitcom role in Hulu's Woke, as a cartoonist who begins to question racial injustice (with the help of anthropomorphic everyday objects) after a run-in with the police, per IndieWire. That year, he also had a leading role on the big screen, in thriller dramedy Death of a Telemarketer, with The Guardian lauding his charismatic performance.

Zooey Deschanel Clothes, Style, Outfits, Fashion, Looks

It's hard to imagine anyone other than Max Greenfield in the role of Schmidt, the vain womanizer with an unhealthy relationship with his hair conditioner. But as Greenfield has proven in recent years, he is skillful as both a comedic and dramatic actor.

These days, Greenfield is a close collaborator of Ryan Murphy. In 2018, he starred in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, taking on a decidedly different, darker role from those fans are used to seeing him in. In an interview with amNewYork, he emphasized the importance of showing the vulnerability of his character, Ronnie, a man living with AIDS who has gone to great lengths to isolate himself from society, only to befriend serial killer Andrew Cunanan in his loneliness. For somebody who is so completely on their own in Miami, living minute by minute... to find any sort of friendship, was so important for him, he explained. He didn't want to believe Andrew could've done something very harmful. Greenfield worked with Murphy again when he appeared in American Horror Stories for Season 2 in 2022, per TV Insider.

The actor is also presently starring on sitcom The Neighborhood, which he swiftly moved onto following the New Girl finale in 2018, per Variety. An allegory for gentrification, the series sees Greenfield play a white man who moves into a predominantly Black neighborhood, much to the chagrin of family man Cedric the Entertainer, who finds Greenfield's sickly sweet schtick hard to stomach.

Manic Pixie No Dream Girl

As the adorkable hero of New Girl, Jess Day charmed her way into the hearts of fans (not to mention Nick) with her perennially positive persona. Since the sitcom's finale, Deschanel has been keeping super busy, but not necessarily with acting. Although she lent her voice to the Trolls franchise, and starred in the musical biography Dreamin' Wild in 2022, she has recently focused more on hosting and music, per her IMDb page.

In 2021, she started hosting The Celebrity Dating Game alongside Michael Bolton. Speaking with Bustle, she revealed that the pandemic spurred her into moving out of her comfort zone, thus accepting the gig. Ultimately I'm an actor first and foremost, so I was like, 'I could play the part of a person hosting a show, ' which was fun, she mused. The following year, her group She & Him announced the release of a Beach Boys covers album, per Pitchfork. Along with New Girl co-stars Hannah Simone and Lamorne Morris, she also launched the iHeartMedia podcast Welcome to Our Show.

Chatting to The Guardian, Deschanel was asked whether the more empowered post-MeToo era had hindered her acting career due to her tendency to be cast in stereotypical manic pixie dream girl roles. I think the tendency is still to make women one-dimensional, she conceded, so you have to add dimension, if you can. The more screen time a female character gets, the more space there is to show complexities, but there has been a shift, so I'm optimistic.

Wornontv: Zooey Deschanel's Blue Floral Print Ruffle Dress On Access Hollywood

As the drop-dead gorgeous model who stole womanizer Schmidt's heart on New Girl, Hannah Simone's Cece was a much needed antidote to the brodom in which Jess Day was forced to live. Given Simone's own modeling background, it comes as little surprise that she's killing it as an Instagram influencer these days. Through the social media platform, where she has an impressive 1.4 million followers, she has scored some major brand ambassadorships, including with Hyundai.

In 2019, Simone joined The Lonely Island for their Netflix special The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience. She and Jenny Slate riotously portrayed office workers whom Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer try to woo, with zero success, per Men's Health.

In 2020, Simone delved into children's TV when she joined the main cast of the Disney Junior animated series Mira, Royal Detective. Speaking with HollywoodLife, she said that she was excited to be part of a show that had an all-South Asian ensemble cast, which includes Kal Penn and Freida Pinto. They were like, it's got the South Asian lead character named Mira, who is going to be voiced by a young girl, and we're going to surround her with an all-star South Asian cast... I was like, I'm in, she enthused. Simone is now returning to her sitcom roots, with Deadline announcing in 2022 that she's been cast in ABC's Not Dead Yet, where she's set to play Sam, a newspaper editor who befriends Gina Rodriguez's floundering journalist.

Musik Von She & Him: Alben, Lieder, Songtexte

As the cheeky but charming Coach, Damon Wayans Jr. provided a chaotic energy to the orderliness that Schmidt inflicted upon his roommates. A member of the Wayans brood, it was

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