NEW YORK (AFP): United States animated series, The Simpsons, will no longer use white actors to dub ethnic minority characters, the show’s producers confirmed.
The show producers in a statement said, “Moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have white actors’ voice non-white characters.”
The decision includes a recurring character from the series, launched in 1989 — Apu, a grocer of Indian origin voiced in the American version of the show by white actor Hank Azaria.
Azaria said earlier this year that he would no longer play the character, which has been criticised as a negative portrayal of Indian-Americans.
Hank Azaria has voiced the Simpsons characters of Black police officer Lou and the Mexican-American Bumblebee Man. The change will also affect the character of Dr. Hibbert, a black man dubbed by the white actor Harry Shearer. The Simpsons is syndicated in more than 100 countries.
Americans are in the midst of a reckoning on systemic racism and discrimination ignited by the killing of George Floyd, an African American man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.
Other white actors, including Mike Henry of animated series Family Guy and Kristen Bell of Central Park, have also said they will no longer voice characters of colour.
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