You’ve probably seen the TikToks. Max Greenfield—the guy who made Schmidt a household name on New Girl—dancing awkwardly while his teenage daughter, Lilly, looks on with a mix of affection and total second-hand embarrassment. It’s a vibe. But while the internet loves "Dad Max," the real engine behind the scenes is his wife, Tess Sanchez.
Honestly, their story isn’t your typical "met at an awards show" Hollywood fluff. It’s grittier, longer, and way more interesting than a red carpet soundbite.
The "Cool Jams" Start to Tess Sanchez and Max Greenfield
They didn’t meet when he was famous. Far from it. Back in 2003, Max was just another aspiring actor in Los Angeles with a few guest spots and a lot of free time. Tess was a rising force in casting. They met at a bar, the way people did before apps ruined everything.
Max was, by his own admission, a bit of a "hard-partying" guy back then. There was a brief split early on because life got messy. Max actually went to rehab and has been sober since 2006. That’s the part people usually gloss over, but it’s basically the foundation of why they’ve lasted over twenty years.
How did he win her back? A mixtape. Seriously.
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He gave her a CD labeled "Cool Jams." It’s such a Schmidt move that it feels like destiny, but it worked. By the time they married on August 9, 2008, they weren’t just a couple; they were a team that had already survived the worst of the industry’s "starving artist" years.
Career Flipping and the New Girl Boom
For a long time, Tess was the primary breadwinner. She spent eleven years as the Head of Casting at Fox Entertainment. Think about that: while Max was auditioning and "barely missing" big roles, Tess was the one in the rooms making the big decisions.
In her 2025 book, We’ve Decided to Go in a Different Direction, she gets real about this dynamic. She talks about the period where Max was super depressed because his career wasn't clicking.
Then New Girl happened in 2011.
Suddenly, Max was the one with the crazy shooting schedule. Most couples in Hollywood crumble when the power dynamic shifts like that, but they didn’t. When Max was working 14-hour days as Schmidt, Tess was holding down the fort while managing a high-stress executive career. Later, when Tess left her role at Fox, things flipped again.
The Chaos of Parenting Lilly and Ozzie
They have two kids: Lilly, born in 2010, and Ozzie James, who arrived in 2015.
Max is pretty vocal about the fact that having two kids feels like having a thousand. It’s exhausting. Lilly is now 15 and, according to Max, she is the one who "auditioned" to be his TikTok choreographer. She’s the boss. Ozzie, at 10, keeps them grounded in a different way.
There’s this funny thing about being a "celebrity parent" where people think it’s all nannies and curated playdates. Max and Tess make it look more like a slightly more expensive version of your own chaotic Tuesday.
- The "Be Kind" Rule: They have two main house rules. 1. Be kind. 2. Have fun.
- The TikTok Tenure: Max only joined TikTok for Lilly because she wasn't allowed to have her own account.
- The 21-Year Stretch: They’ve been together for over two decades now. That’s a geological era in Hollywood time.
Why They Actually Work (And It's Not Luck)
It’s easy to look at them and say "they're just lucky," but that’s lazy. The reason Tess Sanchez and Max Greenfield are still a thing is that they survived the lean years. They knew each other when they were broke and when one of them was struggling with sobriety.
They don't do the "perfect couple" act. Tess is quick to call out Max's quirks, and Max is the first to credit Tess's career instincts for keeping him sane.
Most people think of them as the funny guy and his wife, but Tess is a powerhouse in her own right. Between her casting legacy and her new career as an author, she’s not just "the woman behind the man." She’s the one who kept the man from spiraling before the world knew who he was.
Moving Forward: Lessons from the Sanchez-Greenfield Playbook
If you’re looking at their relationship and wondering how to replicate that kind of longevity, it basically comes down to a few unromantic truths.
- Prioritize the person, not the career. Max almost quit acting right before he got his big break. Tess supported him, but she also kept her own career moving.
- Accept the "Different Direction." Careers change. Roles end. Jobs at big networks like Fox disappear. Being able to pivot together—like Tess did into writing—is why they don't get stuck in the past.
- Humor is a survival skill. If you can’t laugh at your own awkward TikTok dances or your failed auditions, you won’t last a week in LA.
Keep an eye out for Tess's essays if you want the unfiltered version of Hollywood life. It's way less "glamorous" and way more relatable than the headlines suggest.
Check out Max's children's book I Don't Want to Read This Book if you want to see how he channeled his own parenting struggles into something useful for kids. It’s a great entry point for reluctant readers and shows a different side of his creative partnership with his family.