'New Girl': Lamorne Morris Replaces Damon Wayans Jr. in Fox Comedy

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"The New Girl"

Lamorne Morris has replaced Damon Wayans Jr. in Fox’s upcoming fall comedy The New Girl.

Morris will play Winston, a competitive former athlete who has realized he’ll never go pro and moves into the loft shared with Zooey Deschanel, Max Greenfield and Jake Johnson. Wayans played Coach, one of the roommates, in the pilot but the role was in second position to ABC’s Happy Endings, which was recently picked up for a second season.

Rather than recast and reshoot the pilot, Morris will join the comedy in the second episode of the series. Wayans’ Coach will only be seen in the pilot episode and Winston will be introduced in Episode 2.

Morris’ credits include hosting Cartoon Network’s game show Brain Rush and hosting his own show HotWyred on BET and several of the cable network’s live-show specials. His credits also include an episode of The Middle.

From 20th Television and Chernin Entertainment, the series was created and written by Liz Meriwether, who executive produces alongside Jake Kasdan, Peter Chernin, Katherine Pope, Dave Finkel and Brett Baer. Kasdan directed the pilot.

New Girl premieres in the prime post-Glee slot on Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 9 p.m.

Morris is repped by Global Artists Agency and Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment.