Here's Olivia Rodrigo's brief appearance on New Girl explained. After breaking through with movies like Elf and 500 Days Of Summer, Zooey Deschanel moved to TV with the sitcom New Girl. This proved to be a smart move, with the series being both a ratings success and well-received critically. New Girl followed Deschanel's teacher Jess Day as she moved into a loft with all-male roommates, including Jake Johnson's Nick and Max Greenfield's Schmidt.
New Girl also featured some memorable guest appearances over the course of its run. Probably the most famous (or epic) was Prince, who appeared as himself during season 3. Taylor Swift made a memorable New Girl cameo during the season 2 finale, while Jamie Lee Curtis, Dylan O'Brien and Jessica Biel all made surprise appearances on the hit sitcom during its seven-season run.
Singer and actor Olivia Rodrigo also made an appearance on New Girl early on in her career. This was before starring in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series or the major success of her album Sour. Rodrigo appeared during New Girl season 6 in 2017 during the episode "Young Adult." This outing saw Principal Jess trying to appear hip to her students and inviting Nick to speak with some of them about his novel The Pepperwood Chronicles. Olivia Rodrigo plays one of these students named Terrinea, who showered Nick with praise for his book and starts to think Jess is cool for being both his roommate and ex-girlfriend.
While Jess likes being considered "cool," it soon becomes clear she's lost her authority too and she has to reprimand Terrinea and her friends later in the episode for another meeting with Nick. They later apologize to Jess, and that's the end of Olivia Rodrigo's New Girl role. While she had a few lines, overall, her part in "Young Adult" was fairly short. Rodrigo was already appearing in a lead role in the Disney series Bizaardvark prior to New Girl and landed High School Musical: The Musical: The Series soon after.
Her musical success has overshadowed her acting work, which means Rodrigo's High School Musical: The Series role was reduced for season 3. In 2021, Deschanel posted a Twitter throwback to Olivia Rodrigo's New Girl appearance where her character is praising Jess for knowing Nick, with Deschanel humorously reframing it with "Real footage of Olivia Rodrigo crediting me for inspiring her number #1 album." The actor then went on to offer Rodrigo congratulations on her success with Sour.