One of the most handsome, interesting, and a bit controversial American actors is Max Greenfield.
The world knows him for his roles in The O.C., Boston Public, Gilmore Girls, as well some of the shows he participated in – Ugly Betty, Veronica Mars, Melrose Place, Castle, and Modern Man.
Max wrote, produced, and features in The Gentleman League, a comedy series in 2010.
Some of the top movies he acted in are New Girl, Cross Bronx, When Do We Eat, etc.
Thanks to his interpretation, unprecedented performances, and abilities, Max has earned numerous awards and nominations for the roles he played.
Early Years
Max Greenfield has 38 years and is born on September 4, 1980, in Dobbs Ferry, New York, where he was raised as well.
He is the only child in the family, and that is why Max created a tight connection with his adorable parents from his childhood.
However, being the only child made him so close to the parents he didn’t want to make almost any friends with other kids.
This started to show off when he was in school, as Max was unable to make new friends or grow fonder with his classmates.
Max changed schools regularly, but nothing seemed to fit right at that time. His parents visited schools several times because of his lack of will to engage in conversation with kids from school or any other social activity.
For this reason, his teachers started to think Max was dealing with a mental disorder, which made his parents very upset.
However, Max didn’t seem to mind these transfers from one school to another, but that was of the fact his parents engaged in transfer jobs, and he followed the flow.
In the end, Max’s parents wanted to find the best solution for him and decided to educate him at home, which worked.
Max also had a private tutor, with whom he was on the line in case he needed some help.
His parents were taking counseling classes, as they had the main role in helping him get out of that state of mind he was in.
The counselor advised them to engage him in sporting activities or music, or any extracurricular activity. Luckily, Max’s mother happened to be a music maestro, and she initiated his interest and love for music.
Max played the piano, drums, and electric guitar even from his young age, while his voice turned out to be very sonorous.
He gradually started recuperating from the previous state of mind and took part in a couple of competitions and talent hunt shows afterward.
Also, Max began attending drama classes, as the developed interest in drama and theatre arts in the meanwhile. It was in high school when Max started acting for fun, even though he never thought it would be his profession for the future.
He did graduate from Dobbs Ferry High School, but his parents were convinced Max would pursue his career in fields he was really good at – music and acting, and that is exactly what happened, as he was sort of dropped out of college.
His parents freaked out at first, but had to accept this fact.
Max decided to give a chance to acting and began his journey in 1998.
Career Development
From the moment Max moved to Los Angeles, something was pushing him into the direction of acting, and he took the chance.
Actually, he didn’t have any other options at that moment, while acting felt much more tangible at that moment as well.
As Max is Jewish, he had his own Saturday Night Live-themed Bar Mitzvah before he became famous.
In 2000, Max made a big start with the Undressed, the MTV anthology, where he played the role of Victor and appeared in three episodes of the series.
Max’s appearance in Gilmore Girls, The O.C., and Boston Public drew attention to this young actor, which lead to getting his first lead role in Modern Men.
Modern Man is the short-lived series about three bachelors trying to understand women with the help of a life coach.
Even though this role wasn’t bad, Veronica Mars and Greek brought him more success, in which he had supporting roles.
What follows is Ugly Betty from 2007. Max had a recurring role in this series.
Some of the primetime series Max had guest-starring roles are Castle, No Ordinary Life, and The CW’s remake of Melrose Place.
The Gentleman’s League came out in 2010 and Max experienced huge success on this one. This comedy series narrates the story of the real-life fantasy football league Max ran with his actor friend – Jerry Ferrara.
The film Cross Bronx was Max’s feature film debut, after which he got a fantastic role in When Do We Eat?.
Max plays an Internet tycoon who is losing all his fortune and becomes a Hasidic Jew.
The sitcom New Girl and the role of Schmidt from 2011 brought Max nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy series.
Schmidt (Max) from the New Girl goes through a couple of dramatic transitions. Max actually played the role for 7 seasons, going from 2011 to 2018.
He started off as an obese student and ends up as a womanizer and an overly confident guy. Further, Schmidt became a marketing associate working in an office full of females.
In the end, Schmidt began living with the main actress – Jess, played by Zooey Deschanel.
The role of Schmidt brought Max a Teen Choice Award for Scene Stealer – Man.
Actually, Max wasn’t so eager about the role and the character, and he was having second thoughts about the audience. Another reason for this was the fact Max thought he and the character from the show are going in very different directions.
In the end, both critic and audiences received the role of Schmidt very well.
Greenfield promoted McDonald’s Sirloin Third Pound Burgers in a series from 2015.
Max got the lead role in The Neighborhood – the CBS comedy in which he played Dave Johnson. Interestingly, it was Josh Lawson who got the lead role initially and played the character in the pilot episode, but Max took over this role from him.
Did you recognize Max’s voice in the Ice Age: Collision Course? He provided his voice for this 3D computer-animated science—fiction comedy film.
In 2018, they decided to revive Veronica Mars, and Max reprised his role as Leo D’Amato in 8 episodes of this revival series.
The same year, Max played a role in the Netflix comedy-drama series A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Further, Max appeared in A Futile and Stupid Gesture, in which he acted a real-life character, Chris Miller. Chris is an author and screenwriter who wrote the scenario for the comedy film Animal House and wrote for the National Lampoon, a humor magazine.
Max loves and respects his fans, and is constantly publishing some great content from movies scenes.
Greenfield is a philanthropist and he believes his mission is to help children and young people gain self-confidence and work on their creativity. That is one of the reasons why he has worked with the Young Story Tellers foundation, which is a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles.
His kids, Ozzie and Lilly are his biggest inspiration when it comes to charitable endeavors.
Max supports organizations Stand Up To Cancer, The Nature Conservancy, Milk+Bookies, and the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation as well.
Personal Life
Since the very start of his acting career, Max was seen as a player and a womanizer, and he always worked hard to look as fit as possible. However, he couldn’t resist the charm and beauty of Tess Sanchez, a renowned casting director.
In other words – she is a player behind the scene. Some of the projects she worked on were Do Not Disturb, the TV reboots of 10 Things I Hate About You and Melrose Place.
This makes them both part of the Fox family.
Max and Tess were together for 5 years until he proposed.
These two married in 2008, and the marriage is running smoothly until then.
Max and Tess have two kids – daughter Lilly and a younger son Ozzie.
There were rumors that Max was gay, but this story kicked off with his role in the second season of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.
The truth is – Max knows many people who are gay, and his talent and acting abilities gave him the possibility to see through their behavior and act the same.
He explained that he didn’t want to encourage any discrimination against people who are gay, and that is the reason why he acted the role so well.
Concluding – Max Greenfield is not gay.
Quick Summary
Full Name: Max Greenfield
Date of Birth: September 4, 1980
Birthplace: Dobbs Ferry, New York
Age: 39
Profession: Actor
Height: 1.78m
Weight: 75kg
Net Worth: $3 million