New Girl/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The characters of the FOX series New Girl:

Jessica Day (Zooey Deschanel)

  • Adorkable: And how!
  • Adult Child: Among other things, she has a collection of "heartwarming films" with a usual audience of about age ten, loves prop teeth and bubbles, and gets totally distracted by ice cream.
  • Beware the Nice Ones
  • Blithe Spirit: She's actually closer to this than MPDG.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: The boys really aren't quite sure what to make of her sometimes. Played for Laughs of course.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: She's odd and she sings, but she's got a solid philosophy on keeping her students encouraged, is a well of information, and by and large seems to get their respect.
  • Cool Teacher
  • Covert Pervert: She's really awkward about surprise roommate genitalia, but it's frequently underlined that she's in touch with her sexuality (nervous about not being good, but not nervous about having urges).
  • Crazy Awesome: Talked a man with a gun into not only not shooting her, but giving up the parking space he was trying to steal, by being kind and apologetic. She later did herself one better by scaring off a coyote by getting on all fours and howling.
  • Crazy Prepared: Packed a sewing kit, stain remover, and a box of 100 condoms for a one night stand, as well as spraying her entire body with perfume in case. Keeps a feelings stick in her purse, picks up Cece from a club with pretzels, bakes in anticipation of confrontations, and if she plans something -- a last-minute birthday party, a science day presentation -- it will be elaborate.
  • The Cutie
  • Formerly Fat: When she was in grade school.
  • Genki Girl
  • Girly Run
  • Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: She can be completely blind to people's ulterior motives until it blows up in her face.
    • She also finds it fundamentally strange that anyone would not be into desserts.
  • Gratuitous French: She seems to tend toward this or French accents in particular.
  • Hippie Teacher: Vaguely, but Dreamcess must count for something.
  • The Ingenue
  • Innocent Blue Eyes
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Well, she is played by Zooey Deschanel, after all.
  • Meganekko
  • Motor Mouth: Chatty, opinionated, and has no trouble saying whatever comes to mind, however strange or unsettling. Nick has suggested a couple of times that he would like her to be more quiet.
  • Non-Nude Bathing
  • Only Sane Employee: She manages to be more appropriate than her kid-hating boss who seems to have no boundaries and the music teacher who basically makes his students sing a dirge to his dead grandma.
  • Plucky Girl
  • The Pollyana
  • Strange Girl: In flashbacks and as an adult.
  • Super Strength: She's known for a mean tackle.
  • Sweet Tooth: She finds it fundamentally strange that anyone couldn't be a dessert person. That's just weird and it freaks her out.
  • Team Mom: Basically, you will take care of yourself or she will do it for you.
  • Tsundere: Type B
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist

Nick Miller (Jake Johnson)

  • Actor Shared Background: Nick is from Chicago as is Jake Johnson.
  • Bottle Fairy: Likes a drink.
  • Brilliant but Lazy
  • Butt Monkey: It seems the writers aren't happy until they can put Nick throught at least one painfully humiliating and unhappy experience per episode.
  • Cannot Keep a Secret / Can Not Tell a Lie: He breaks into blatant nervous sweats. ...also sometimes he stutters about magic bears.
  • Character Tics: That scrunched-up grimace of bewilderment and/or disgust he frequently makes. Dubbed his "turtle face" by Jess.
  • The Cynic: Oh so very much. He makes House look fluffy and optimistic by comparison.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He's quite a woobie but, if you value your life, you'll never treat him like one.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Hoo boy.
  • Grumpy Bear
  • Grumpy Old Man: In spirit. Cece compares him to Walter Matthau.
  • Hair of Gold: As a child.
  • I Can't Dance: It doesn't always stop him, though.
  • I Want to Be a Real Man
  • In Vino Veritas
  • Inelegant Blubbering: He cries the most of anyone on the show.
  • Jade-Colored Glasses: And he will go to self-abusive extremes to prove he's right in this.
  • Jaded Washout: A pretty big part of why he is so cynical and unhappy.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It comes from cynicism rather than any actual Jerkishness.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: He almost always does the right thing for people. He's just rarely happy about it.
  • Limited Wardrobe: His style seems to consist solely of plaid shirts and denim which fits his characterization quite well.
    • There's also those hoodies he hides under sometimes.
  • Most Writers Are Writers: There have been implications that his interest is in writing, such as using that as an excuse to get out of a doctor's appointment, or his having written half a novel. Based on some references he's made, he also seems to have high and varied literary tastes.
  • Mr. Fixit: He tries. Actually, his willingness to "fancy fix" the toilet and the compliments his solution got from a plumber suggest he does know what he's doing, but it's not enough for Schmidt's satisfaction. Anyway, they're all afraid of the landlord, so if something goes wrong, everybody goes yelling for him instead.
  • Nice Guy: He's overall a very good guy despite having a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas.
  • The Nicknamer: If Nick doesn't like you, he doesn't use your name.
  • No Indoor Voice: He kind of almost always sounds like he's barking at somebody even when he's not upset (which isn't often).
  • Odd Friendship: Of the three guys, he seems to be closest with Jess which is unusual considering that she's perpetually cheery and he considers smiling a sign of weakness. He's also best friends with Schmidt though both find the other's lifestyle choice highly objectionable.
  • One-Hour Work Week: Justified as he is a bartender. And judging from his character, it wouldn't be surprising at all if he chose it for that exact purpose.
  • Only Sane Man: He thinks of himself as this, telling a date that he's "the voice of reason" among his friends. This is less true than it may appear.
  • Perma-Stubble
  • Perpetual Frowner: He considers smiling a sign of weakness.
  • Perpetual Poverty / The Scrooge: He doesn't actually have much money to be a miser with, but he spends the majority of the first season more employed than Winston and yet way more resistant to spending, to the point where he emphatically refuses to even buy a wallet when pressed.
    • For awhile there he can't even afford to replace his cell phone and has, in Winston's words, "The credit rating of a homeless ghost."
  • The Slacker: Rears its head at times to horrify you.
  • The Snark Knight
  • Stepford Snarker
  • The Stoner: Formerly, and apparently such a notorious case that his mom still brings it up.
  • Straight Man: The insanity usually plays out around him.
  • Team Dad: Occasionally he tries to lecture various roommates on their maturity levels. He also goes driving around for an hour searching for Jess out of worry.
  • When He Smiles: He spends most of his time scowling and looking unhappy (often because he is). But when he's actually happy and smiles, it's pretty sweet.

Schmidt (Max Greenfield)

  • Bi the Way: Possibly. At the very least, he seems awfully determined to get a look at Nick's privates in one episode, even attempting to hide in the shower to do so (it doesn't work).
  • Casanova Wannabe
  • Closet Geek: Seemingly hinted at. He apparently was considered a geek when he was in school.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Became so insecure about the male models Cece works with that he accuses her of being an untrustworthy sex worker with bad taste in men (proof being her interest in him), sneaks into her text messages, and breaks up with her "for her own sake."
  • The Dandy: He has body gelato, and even Cece isn't allowed to touch it.
  • Disappeared Dad: He occasionally references his mother, and a flashback shows him as a child at a large dinner table with only his mother. His dad's never been addressed.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse
  • Formerly Fat: He was known for most of his life as "Fat Schmidt."
  • Friends with Benefits: With Cece.
  • Gym Bunny
  • Handsome Lech: If you're into that.
  • I Call Him "Mister Happy": Or, in Schmidt's case, "Hector J."
  • Jerkass: He's definitely the least likeable main character in the series, in-universe at least.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold
  • Jewish and Nerdy: He's very proud of his Jewish heritage (Schmidt: "Judaism, son!") and alludes to his Judaism very often. He appears to hide his nerdiness though, but his status as a secret geek is often hinted at.
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Frequently dispenses bad advice or gives lectures with great confidence about information that the others know is wrong.
  • Ladykiller in Love: Towards Cece.
  • Last-Name Basis: So far his first name has not been revealed.
  • My Beloved Smother: Based on the information given, his mother is both emotionally distant and yet controlling, to the point where it drove him to binge eating as a child.
  • Neat Freak
  • Occidental Otaku: Possibly.
    • In "Cece Crashes," he owns a rather short kimono (handwoven ... in China) and tried to defend himself from Winston and Nick's ridicule by associating it with samurais. Later, when trying to guess Cece's ethnicity, "manga" is one of his rambling responses.
      • He doesn't say "manga," he actually says "mango chut'ney...really any type of chut'ney."
    • Another episode shows him eating an entire platter of sushi, and an argument with Nick brings up the time Schmidt spilled a Midori Sour on his nana's quilt.
  • Real Men Cook
  • Really Gets Around: Implied. Although he might be exaggerating this to make himself look more impressive.
  • Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense: He grew up rich and makes a lot of money in his job, which has made him not necessarily clueless but very used to a certain standard of living, willing to throw money at any problems, and unaware that ruining someone's family heirlooms inherited from dead loved ones is not something you can make up for with a check.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Constantly. He must have squandered at least a month's salary in the "Douchebag Jar".
  • Super OCD: Fortunately for him, Nick and Winston are dependent slobs.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: At least once every episode Schmidt finds an excuse to employ this trope, usually whenever Cece is around.

Winston Bishop (Lamorne Morris)

  • Action Hero Babysitter: Well, multi-talented, former professional basketball playing, unlikely babysitter.
  • Black Best Friend: To all the other characters, though he himself is also a main character, unlike many characters on the page for this trope.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: To cruel and annoying DJ Joe Napoli. They end up getting along, but Joe puts him through a lot of weird stuff.
  • Berserk Button: It isn't so much that he has one specific button as it is that he does really, really weird things when upset, even by the standards of the people he's surrounded by.
  • The Bully: (Formerly.) "Brown Lightning!"
  • Catch Phrase: "BOOM!" (And, of course, "Brown Lightning" back in his bullying days.)
  • Childhood Friends: With Nick.
  • Friend to All Children: When Jess agrees to bring a group of troubled kids into their home after school, it initially appears that this will create a lot of trouble... until he shows up, strikes a rapport with the kids, and begins training them to play bells for a concert in the park (It Makes Sense in Context).
    • With Elvin at Schmidt's work party. It scores him a job.
  • Genius Bruiser: Used to be a professional athlete with an ego problem, now hangs around being the most unexpectedly level-headed of the bunch, as well as the most secure among the guys about his geeky side.
  • Go-To Alias: Theodore K. Mullins.
  • Insufferable Genius/Small Name, Big Ego: He's realizing this about himself and trying to work past it.
  • NEET: Jess cracks up at the idea that he might be too busy to come help her when she calls him. (Things start looking up eventually.)
  • Primal Fear: His fear of the dark is a totally rational adaptive evolutionary response. His associated fear of werewolves perhaps less so.
  • Promoted Fanboy: He gets to work with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The first thing he does is ask to sit on his shoulders.
  • Only Sane Man: Basically, he's the blue to everyone's red. And he's especially become this even moreso as Nick has undergone a downward spiral.
  • Sexier Alter Ego: Sometimes it is useful to him to slip into the character of Theodore K. Mullins, the soulful, deep-voiced "lover on the down-low" of Nick or Schmidt, depending on who he's trying to help/hurt at the time.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: With girlfriend Shelby.

Cecilia "Cece" Meyers (Hannah Simone)

Recurring Cast:

Paul Genzlinger (Justin Long)

Julia Cleary (Lizzy Caplan)

Caroline (Mary Elizabeth Ellis)

  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's perfectly friendly whenever you meet her, but Nick's friends have horror stories about the things she put him through.
  • Girl Next Door: She comes across as even-tempered, friendly, with a personality not too extreme in any direction.
  • Hair of Gold
  • The Masochism Tango: Her habit of stringing Nick along comes from her never feeling like he's there for her emotionally, yet being unable to move on from him herself, making the relationship a painful one for both of them.
  • Master of the Mixed Message: She spends all day flirting with Nick before telling him she's already got a boyfriend.
  • Old Flame: Of Nick's. He's been hung up on her since college.
  • Really Seventeen Years Old: Well, she's actually older than she says, not younger, but it's probably for the same principle of feeling like her age says something about her she'd rather it didn't.
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