Max Greenfield's 2 Kids: All About Lilly and Ozzie

Max Greenfield is an actor, producer and writer, but his favorite role is being a dad to his children: Lilly and Ozzie.

The New girl star and his wife, former casting director Tess Sanchez, married in 2008. A year and a half later, the couple had their first child, daughter Lilly. The family expanded again with the birth of son Ozzie in 2015.

“I definitely didn’t think I was ready,” he said Parents about becoming a first-time dad. “You’re a psychopath if you’re about to have your first child and you say, ‘I’m ready for this!’ ”

Who is Max Greenfield’s wife? All about Tess Sanchez

In the same interview, Sanchez shared that she was initially hesitant about adding another child to the mix, but Greenfield was fully prepared to try for baby No. 2. “After Lilly, I knew I wanted another,” he explained. “I was an only child and I wanted her to have a brother or sister.”

The actor admitted that getting used to two children did not happen overnight. Shortly after Ozzie was born, he told PEOPLE there were “moments of exhaustion and despair.” But, he said, being a new father again comes with “all the moments of joy.”

Neighborhood star, best known for his comedic roles, takes a similarly playful approach to parenting. “Point me in the direction of the party and I’m there. But I’m terrible at everything else,” he said Parents about his fathering style.

Max Greenfield with his children, daughter Lilly and son Ozzie.

Tess Sanchez’s Instagram

As for whether he’s interested in continuing to grow his family, Greenfield says he already has his hands full. “Having two children is like having 1,000,” he said GQ. “It makes everything much more difficult.”

He added: “I couldn’t be anymore [into being a dad]. … Nothing more could be done. But so happy with these two idiots.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Max Greenfield’s children: Lilly and Ozzie.

Lilly Greenfield, 14

Max Greenfield takes a selfie with his daughter Lilly Greenfield.

Tess Sanchez/Instagram

Greenfield and Sanchez welcomed their daughter, Lilly Greenfield, on January 27, 2010.

She was a casting director at Fox at the time, and he, in the midst of a lull in his career, decided to devote himself to fatherhood full-time. “I was out of work and I was ready to stop acting altogether,” he said Parents. “So I said to Tess, ‘I’m having a baby. You do your thing.’ ”

It was not an easy adjustment for Unfrozen cast member, who admitted to repeatedly asking Sanchez for help. “I remember sleepless nights, crying in the laundry, thinking ‘This is how they torture war criminals,'” he joked.

Speaking about their parenting style, Sanchez explained that their only rule for their children is to “be kind and compassionate.” She explained: “We’re pretty relaxed about everything except how they behave and talk to other people. The only time we get angry is if we see the kids being reckless.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, that relaxed attitude was also on full display. Like many other parents, Greenfield had to continue homeschooling because of the quarantine period. “I was really beside myself,” he said in an interview with Fatherly.

However, he took the opportunity to bond with his daughter and show off their shared sense of humor with a series of funny videos on social media.

“[I] it was like, well, maybe we should really have some fun. So we would shoot videos when we have a break in the day, between studying,” he said. “We would make a video if we had a really funny idea. … Lilly was really excited about it, and it made the time kind of fun and exciting.”

Although he was happy to allow Lilly to return to private learning, he enjoyed the short stint of homeschooling. “It was a really rewarding experience,” he told AOL. “We made the most of a really overwhelming and unfortunate situation for her because she had me as a teacher.”

Max Greenfield and his daughter, Lilly Greenfield, on the beach.

Tess Sanchez/Instagram

The father-daughter duo also bonded over TikTok. During the performance at The Jennifer Hudson Show, Greenfield shared that he only joined the social media platform for Lilly, who is not allowed to have an account of her own. Now she is responsible for the choreography of all his videos.

“She kind of knows how to do all these dances,” he told host Jennifer Hudson. “If she’s not in it, she’s behind the camera saying, ‘Now dad, you do this.’ ”

The actor showed off plenty of those dance moves in 2023 when he took Lilly to Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour show in Los Angeles. Greenfield, who attended the concert with his entire family, told PEOPLE, “It was the best atmosphere ever.”

Lilly seems to share her dad’s sense of humor, but she may also be following him in terms of her future career. In 2016, Greenfield told PEOPLE that his then-6-year-old was interested in acting.

“She’s a bit of a performer,” he said. “She was inside Mary Poppins recently and she played Mary Poppins and there was Mrs. Hannigan Annie.”

Almost eight years later, that prediction proved true when Lilly appeared in a Season 4 episode Neighborhood with his father.

“We had her audition, she was excellent if I may say so myself,” Greenfield said of the experience at The Rachael Ray Show. “She likes it here and has been good to everyone but me.”

The proud father also took to Instagram to promote his daughter’s television premiere. “All new @theneighborhood this Monday night with a very special guest star,” he captioned a photo of the two on set. “It’s hard work, but an absolute joy to watch ❤️.”

Ozzie James Greenfield, 9

Max Greenfield with his son Ozzie James Greenfield.

Tess Sanchez/Instagram

Greenfield and Sanchez welcomed their second child, son Ozzie James Greenfield, on August 24, 2015.

“Now we have children – plural!” he told PEOPLE shortly after his baby boy was born. “Now it’s like, ‘I have to go pick it up.’ children. I have to take it children home.’ That ‘,’ kid in the plural, is a big deal.”

Still, Greenfield was not shy about the difficulties of raising two children.

“The second kid was a wake-up call, in terms of time management and staying on top of everything,” he told za Men’s magazine. “I realized that what might have worked in the past doesn’t work in the present. Our son has caused me to have a lot less time and to be deeply exhausted most of the time.”

Unlike the first time, when his son arrived, Greenfield starred in a hit television show that earned him an Emmy nomination.

“By the time Ozzie was born, Max was putting in crazy hours new girl, so I was the one who was up all night,” Sanchez said Parents. “Even now, Ozzie still climbs into our bed at 2am with the dog.”

However, according to Greenfield, he doesn’t mind co-sleeping. “When I go on set and I’m lying in bed alone, it’s scary,” he joked. “So if the kids want to climb into our bed, go for it! Come in!”

As for how Ozzie feels about his father’s business, he doesn’t seem to be swayed by it.

Max Greenfield with his son Ozzie James Greenfield.

Tess Sanchez/Instagram

“My son is just starting to understand that I’m an actor, but I don’t think he really knows what an actor is,” Greenfield said in an interview with Salon. “He was seen Neighborhood a couple of times. I think he was really intrigued by the song of laughter, so now he’s still trying to laugh.”

He continued, explaining that Ozzie would try to make people laugh no matter where he was. “[It’s] it’s really good for me because it amuses me. And he’s honestly funny,” added the actor.

During the same interview, Greenfield opened up about how being a father helped him add another role to his resume: author.

In November 2021, he published his first book for children, I don’t want to read this book which was inspired by Lilly and Ozzie.

“My kids don’t like to read, and I fight with them every night about reading,” Greenfield said. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was approached by an agent to write a children’s book.

“I thought, ‘Well, it’s interesting.’ And I thought, ‘Well, if I was ever going to do a picture book, it would be all the reasons why you don’t want to read a book, and at the end of the book, you’ve read the book,'” he explained.

Greenfield has since published two more books for children who don’t necessarily like to read: This book is not a gift and I don’t want to read this book out loud. His fourth book, Good night thoughts, will be published in September 2024.

“It was fun to write, and it couldn’t have turned out any better,” he said of his first title.

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Source: HIS Education