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Zooey Deschanel casually mentioned their former co-star, Morris, 41, and asked if Max Greenfield had kept in touch with him.
New Girl ran for seven seasons on Fox, from 2011 to 2018. (Photo Credits: Instagram)
Keeping up with Lamorne Morris these days? Not so easy – just ask his New Girl co-stars. At the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, February 23, Zooey Deschanel and Max Greenfield took the stage together to present the award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series. Before handing the trophy to the cast of Only Murders in the Building, the duo took a trip down memory lane, recalling their time on the beloved Fox sitcom that made them household names.
“Man. Zooey, I gotta say, this, this, this is wild. I can’t believe this. You look amazing,” Greenfield, 45, gushed, to which Deschanel—also 45, graciously replied, “Thank you. So do you. How long has it been?” “Gosh, I don’t know. Let’s see. We wrapped New Girl eight years ago and so the last time we saw each other must have been, yeah, I guess eight years,” Greenfield mused, reports People.
As the two caught up, Deschanel casually brought up their former co-star, Morris, 41, wondering if Greenfield had been in touch with him. Greenfield’s response? A teasing jab at Morris’ recent rise to stardom.
“It’s been challenging since, well, you know, the Emmy,” he said, alluding to Morris’ 2024 Emmy win. Deschanel, always quick on her feet, added with a grin, “Oh, I thought you were gonna say Men’s Fitness,” referencing Morris’ smouldering magazine spread from last year.
Greenfield nodded, playing along. “No, that too, but so happy for Lamorne,” he added with an exaggeratedly sarcastic tone that had the audience chuckling.
New Girl ran for seven seasons on Fox, from 2011 to 2018. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, the series followed quirky schoolteacher Jessica ‘Jess’ Day as she adjusted to life in a loft with three eccentric male roommates. Alongside Deschanel, Greenfield, and Morris, the ensemble cast included Jake Johnson, Hannah Simone and Damon Wayans Jr.
According to People, since bidding farewell to New Girl, its cast has gone on to carve out impressive careers, but Morris has arguably had the most headline-worthy rise. In 2024, he snagged an Emmy for his work in Fargo, a moment that had his New Girl co-stars flooding social media with celebratory messages. That same month, he portrayed comedy legend Garrett Morris in the critically acclaimed Saturday Night film, before turning up the heat in his much-talked-about Men’s Fitness feature.
Of course, his newfound A-list status hasn’t gone unnoticed by his New Girl family. When Morris reunited with Johnson and Greenfield for PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive issue in November, the pair couldn’t resist giving him a hard time about his Emmy win.
“LAMORNE is the reason we can’t do a New Girl reunion. He won’t do it after his Emmy. He’s got an Emmy clause. That’s real talk. He’s gonna spin it right now, but that’s real.” Johnson, 46, joked.
Morris, never one to miss a beat, fired back, “I look at it like reparations, what I’m due, you know what I’m saying? Hard work. You know what I’m saying? Now, it’s time to pay the piper.”
While a New Girl reunion may be up in the air, one thing’s for sure, Morris’ rise to stardom has been as entertaining as the show itself.
