Nasim Pedrad and the unscripted phone call that turned a friendship into a public question

At 9: 00 p. m. ET, a phone buzzed and a familiar voice picked up on speaker—nasim pedrad, caught mid-life rather than mid-scene. On a New Girl rewatch podcast cohosted by Lamorne Morris and Hannah Simone, Morris didn’t ease into a story or set up a joke. He dialed. Then he said it out loud: he wanted to date her.

What happened when Lamorne Morris called nasim pedrad live?

Lamorne Morris, an alum of New Girl, decided to ask out his former costar in real time. He placed the call during The Mess Around, the rewatch podcast he hosts with Hannah Simone, and framed his idea with blunt simplicity—suggesting they become boyfriend and girlfriend.

Before the call, Morris declared his intent in a clip later posted to TikTok on March 1. Simone backed him immediately, telling him, “You should. Everybody’s been wanting this. Everybody’s been shipping this for a long time. ” Even then, she pushed for something more concrete: “ask her on a real date. ”

When Nasim Pedrad answered, Morris told her he’d decided, “I’m just gonna date Nasim in real life. ” Pedrad’s first question landed like a pin in a balloon of certainty: “Are you talking about now? Or back then?” Morris clarified he meant now, asking if she had a partner and adding that he’d seen her recently and she “seemed single. ”

Why did the moment feel bigger than a joke?

The exchange carried the kind of messy warmth that doesn’t fit cleanly into a scripted romance arc. Morris tried to skip the logistics and leap straight to labels, telling Pedrad they could “just be boyfriend-girlfriend, ” reasoning that they had “gone on many a date as friends. ” When Pedrad didn’t immediately align with his shortcut, Morris pressed: “Nasim, you’re being too complicated, ” then pivoted back to the basic ask. “I’m going to ask you on a date, ” he said, admitting he was busy but promising he would “make the time. ”

Pedrad met the moment with openness rather than a shutdown. “I’m down! Let’s go on a date!” she told him. But she also joked about the shape of their existing friendship—asking whether he would talk to her about “the girls you’ve met on Raya, ” teasing that it was “a huge part of our relationship right now. ”

In the background, Simone played the role of friend and witness. After Pedrad agreed, Simone marveled at how it happened at all. “You two really need to date ‘cause that was literally the worst way to ask a woman out on a date and you still somehow got a date, ” she said. Then she named what made it work in the first place: “You guys have a real friendship. That’s a true foundation. ”

How does a podcast call reflect modern dating pressures?

What unfolded wasn’t presented as a press release, a carefully managed announcement, or even a quiet private step. It was a live moment shaped by a microphone, a cohost, and the expectation—spoken out loud—that “everybody’s been shipping this for a long time. ” The format turned a personal question into a public scene, where humor and vulnerability share the same air.

The conversation also hinted at the tension between spontaneity and practicality. Morris pushed for immediacy—boyfriend and girlfriend now—then acknowledged the real-world constraint: “I’m busy so I ain’t got the time. But I will make the time. ” Pedrad, meanwhile, didn’t reject the possibility, but her initial question—now or back then—suggested the emotional weight of timing, history, and context that a bold ask can overlook.

Morris’ comments elsewhere capture a related point about relationships in a world that can reward strategy over clarity. In a 2016 interview with Glamour, Lamorne Morris said he dislikes “playing games, ” arguing that when relationships become “about strategy” there is “no validity to it. ” He described a simpler approach: “If you feel like texting me, text me!” In the podcast moment, that philosophy looked less like a slogan and more like a gamble—directness as a way to cut through uncertainty, even if it comes out clumsy.

What happens next for Lamorne Morris and nasim pedrad?

There is, for now, only what was said on the call and the immediate reaction in the room. Pedrad agreed to go on a date. Morris promised to make time. Simone celebrated the unlikely success of the ask. Beyond that, the next step is unresolved: it “remains to be seen” whether they find time for a real-life date.

What is clear is how quickly an ordinary social milestone—asking someone out—can become a referendum on friendship, charisma, and audience expectation when it happens in public. Morris is also noted as a father to his 5-year-old daughter, Lily, a detail that subtly grounds the moment in adult life rather than TV nostalgia.

The scene began with a phone call and a question that could have evaporated into laughter. Instead, it ended with an answer—“I’m down!”—that kept the door open. Whether or not a date ever materializes, the live call left its own residue: a reminder that, even years after a show ends, real-time courage can still rewrite what people think they already know about nasim pedrad.