
Share
23rd February 2021
11:54am GMT

Kevin Michael Richardson[/caption]
Fox confirmed that the episode that aired on Sunday night in the US, season 32's 'Dairy Queen', will be the last to feature Harry Shearer voicing that character.
Last year, Shearer was also replaced as the voice of Carl by Alex Desert.
Shearer will continue to voice other characters on the show though, including Mr Burns, Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders and Reverend Lovejoy.
"Moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have White actors voice non-White characters," said the producers of The Simpsons in June 2020.
The practice of having white actors voicing characters of colour came under fire following the 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu. The film, by comedian Hari Kondabolu, investigated the legacy of the Kwik-E-Mart owner, and the impact of him being the most high-profile South Asian character on America TV in the 1990s.
Apu has always been voiced by Hank Azaria, but following the documentary, pressure grew for the role to be recast or the character retired. Then in January of last year, Azaria announced that he "won't be doing the voice anymore, unless there’s some way to transition it or something".
Several other animated shows have also announced that they will be taking similar action. The voice actor for Cleveland on Family Guy, Mike Henry, confirmed he would stop playing the role.
"It’s been an honour to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years," Henry said in a tweet last year. "I love this character, but persons of colour should play characters of colour. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role."Explore more on these topics: