Summary

• Coach was an original loft resident in New Girl but left after the pilot, returning in season 3 and becoming a regular in season 4.
• Wayans' departure from New Girl was due to commitments in Happy Endings, but he made guest appearances in subsequent seasons.
• Wayans has kept busy post-New Girl with voice-over work, movies, and TV roles, including hosting the real-life competition series Frogger.

Damon Wayans Jr’s Coach was one of the original loft residents in New Girl, but he left after the pilot episode. Wayans returned in season 3 and was promoted to a series regular in season 4, after which he left again. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, New Girl debuted on Fox in 2011 and came to an end in 2018 after seven seasons. New Girl was very well received by critics and audiences, who praised the series’ sense of humor and the performances of the main cast, especially that of Max Greenfield, who was considered the breakout star of season 1.

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New Girl followed Jess (Zooey Deschanel), a bubbly and offbeat teacher who, after a bad break up, moved into a loft with three men: Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Greenfield), Coach, and later, Winston (Lamorne Morris). The group was often visited by Jess’ best friend Cece (Hannah Simone), who ended up becoming a very important part of the lives of everyone in the loft. The main group went through some changes throughout the series, with Coach being replaced by Winston after the pilot episode and Jess leaving for a while with Reagan (Megan Fox) taking her place.

Coach Actually Left New Girl Twice

Coach Left After The Pilot Episode And After The Season 4 Finale

Although Coach didn’t stay for long at the beginning of New Girl, he wasn’t forgotten by his former roommates, who casually mentioned him a couple of times in the early seasons. The in-universe reason for Coach’s departure was that he moved in with his then-girlfriend Malia. At the time, all the residents of the loft were not in serious relationships or had recently had bad break-ups. According to his friends, Coach only ever moved out when in a serious relationship and thought he was going to make it work for the long haul.

Behind the scenes, Wayans was also part of the cast of Happy Endings, which was renewed for a second season while he was in New Girl, so he had to leave. Happy Endings was canceled after its third season, and Wayans returned in season 3 of New Girl. However, Coach left again at the end of season 4 when he moved in with his new girlfriend, May (Meaghan Rath), and Wayans’ reasons were different this time.

Why Damon Wayans Left New Girl In Season 4

Wayans Did Return For Guest Appearances

Wayans didn’t have any other commitments at the time, and instead simply opted out of any contract renewals, leaving Coach out of the fun once again. Season 4 had plenty of time to give Coach a new reason to leave, and the creative team left the door open for his return in future episodes.

Coach leaving his friends in New Girl to move to New York reflected a part of growing up on the show. The series worked to make each character retain their quirks while still becoming more mature as their storylines progressed. When moving in with May, Coach didn't up and leave without a goodbye, but instead, learned to process his feelings about leaving his friends.

Wayans made guest appearances in the subsequent seasons and Coach was often mentioned by the rest of the characters. Of course, he couldn’t be left behind in the final season, where he attended the one-year anniversary of Furguson’s death and confronted Nick over a minor problem between them.

Wayans being open to returning for guest spots allowed the audience to see that New Girl's Coach was still bonded with his friends and that adults could maintain their friendships despite living on opposite sides of the country. Although New Girl fans didn’t have enough time to get fully acquainted with Coach, his presence brought an extra dash of fun to the loft, even more so because the series never forgot about him.

What Damon Wayans Jr. Has Done Outside Of New Girl

Wayans Has Had Many TV And Movie Roles After New Girl

Wayans kept himself busy in-between guest appearances as Coach after leaving New Girl: he lent his voice to Wild Arms in The Land Before Time: Journey of the Brave, appeared in the films How To Be Single and Super Troopers 2, and had minor appearances in the series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Curb Your Enthusiasm, before ing the cast of Happy Together.

Since New Girl ended in 2018, Wayans has been busy with appearances in movies as well as television. He’s split his time between comedies and dramas with movies like Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and Cherry. He also hosted Frogger, a real-life competition series inspired by the arcade game from Konami. Wayans is no stranger to voice-over work either, lending his voice talents to Bob's Burgers.

He also has the popular Netflix rom-com with Lucifer’s Tom Ellis called Players. After some delays, it landed on the streamer in 2024. In it, Wayans plays a member of a friend group who have helpful hookup “plays” to guarantee they can play the romantic field long term. Gina Rodriguez stars as the member of the group who falls for her latest hookup, played by Tom Ellis.