Once Upon a Time Alum Julian Morris Joins New Girl

June 2024 · 2 minute read

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We will save you the trouble of seeing New Girl and trying to figure out where you’ve seen Jess’s new suitor. Julian Morris is a Once Upon a Time and Pretty Little Liar’s alum who has landed a recurring role on the FOX show starring Zoey Deschanel. The actor will be playing Ryan, a so-handsome-it’s-distracting teacher that starts teaching at Jess’s school.

Ryan actually replaces Jess in her old classroom, since she is now the school’s Vice Principal. He is very confident and his swagger rubs Jess the wrong way, as she is trying to assert her authority as a superior. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a contempt-fueled, fiery romance.

“The complication is that she’s very much his boss,” executive producer Liz Meriwether says. “Jess is fighting her feelings for this teacher at work.”

As New Girl‘s third season finished, Jess and Nick (Jack Johnson) broke up after realizing that their differences outweighed their feelings and attraction for one another. Schmidt (Max Greenfield) decides to again pursue Cece, who broke up with him at the beginning of the third season for two-timing her, but meanwhile Cece is dating a younger man. Winton passed the entrance exam on his path to becoming a police officer and Coach (Damon Wayans, Jr.) is adjusting to life as a grade school gym teacher at Jess’s school. The loftmates are all single at the beginning of the upcoming fourth season, so finding love will be a recurring theme (as usual) in the show.

The show’s newest (Morris) is an English actor who joined the ABC series Once Upon a Time in 2012. He was cast as Prince Phillip, based on the prince from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. Morris also starred as Dr. Wren Kingston on the ABC Family hit series Pretty Little Liars from 2010 to 2013. Dr. Wren was the ex-fiance of Spencer’s (one of the main characters) older sister Melissa. 

New Girl returns Sept. 16 at 9 p.m. ET on FOX. Morris’s first appearance will be in an October episode of the show.

(Photo by Tim Whitby/Getty Images for BFI)

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