When Greenfield’s daughter was an infant, he wasn’t getting much work as an actor, he said on Live With Kelly and Ryan in 2020. He gave Todd Milliner, a friend of his who produced the series Hot in Cleveland, a call to see if he could find clerical work instead.

“I thought, ‘I don’t think I want to do this anymore…auditioning and acting.’ It was too much for me,” Greenfield said. “And I called our friend Todd Milliner…and I was like, ‘Hey, man, can I have a job just in the office? I have no other skills. I can’t do anything. There’s nothing to fall back on.'”

Hot in Cleveland wasn’t in production at the time, so Milliner told Greenfield to wait a little longer and continue with acting. Greenfield soon auditioned for his big break playing the character Schmidt in New Girl. “I was like, ‘Alright, I guess I’ll go on these last couple auditions I have,’ and one of them was New Girl,” Greenfield said.