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Zooey Deschanel stars on New Girl as Jessica Day, an offbeat, quirky, ADORKABLE young woman who moves in with three guys after getting dumped by her boyfriend.

While the show began as a Zooey Deschanel project, it quickly became a hilarious ensemble as those three guys – and later a fourth – were developed as characters.

The supporting players are Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Winston (Lamorne Morris), Jess' lifelong best friend Cece (Hannah Simone) and Coach (Damon Wayans, Jr.).

Coach was originally supposed to be the third roommate instead of Winston, but Wayans was cast on Happy Endings after the New Girl pilot filmed. Coach was thus replaced by Winston once New Girl was picked up.

With Happy Endings canceled after two seasons, Coach ultimately made his return to the series, now appearing as a regular alongside Winston, Nick, Schmidt, Cece and Jess.

More than most sitcoms, show combines hilariously witty comedy and drama elements as the characters, in their late 20s or early 30s, deal with relationships, careers and life in general.

There are romantic entanglements, of course. Schmidt and Cece enjoy a sexual relationship that ends after he's unable to commit to her or his former girlfriend, played by Merritt Wever.

Jess and Nick, a perennial slacker and grumpy man who is originally from Chicago, also become romantically involved at the end of the second season, complicating life in the loft.

Max Greenfield's Schmidt truly steals the show as an overly confident Jewish ladies' man who Nick and Winston in college while attending Syracuse University. He used to be fat. Really fat.

Since then, though, he has worked tirelessly to be seen as physically attractive and cool, and often says over-the-top offensive or cocky things as a result of trying too hard to mask his insecurities.

Winston and Coach were old basketball teammates and friends, and there exists a level of competition as well as camaraderie between the two as they navigate their own paths now.

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