Close to three years after the release of Hari Kondabolu’s documentary The Trouble With Apu, producers for The Simpsons announced Friday that white actors will no longer voice non-white characters. They did not elaborate as to whether or not these roles will be recast or simply written-out.
Hank Azaria, the voice of Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon for over three decades, said earlier this year that he was done with the role. The character has receded in recent seasons, but as recently as last summer, Simpsons creator Matt Groening said the character will remain, and that “we love Apu. We’re proud of Apu.”
In April 2018, after an episode of The Simpsons that addressed the Apu controversy, producer Al Jean went on Twitter to defend his reluctance to make changes. In June 2018, producer Mike Reiss told fans at an event in Brooklyn that Kondabolu had “a legitimate complaint, and he has a right to make it. Apu is voiced by a white guy and Hari Kondabolu is a comedian who isn’t funny.”
In addition to Apu, Azaria voices the characters of Carl (of “Lenny and” fame), Lou the cop, and Bumblebee Man. Harry Shearer voices Apu’s brother Sanjay and Dr. Julius Hibbert (a Bill Cosby parody). Tress MacNeille voices Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon.
The Simpsons announcement came just hours after actor Mike Henry tweeted that he would no longer portray Cleveland Brown on Family Guy.
Earlier in the week Jenny Slate resigned from the show Big Mouth, where she voices a biracial character. Kristen Bell, who also voiced a biracial character, similarly stepped down from Central Park.
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