New voice for ‘Simpsons’
Voice actor Hank Azaria will be replaced by
Alex Désert to voice the Black character of Carl Carlson Jr. on the season 32 premiere./
A change is gonna come ... to Springfield.
Black actor Alex Désert will voice the Black character of Carl Carlson Jr. on the season 32 premiere of “The Simpsons.”
Known for his roles on “The Flash” and “Better Things,” the 52-year-old actor replaces longtime “Simpsons” voice actor Hank Azaria as the voice of Carl in the episode, which airs Sunday on Fox.
Though it is unclear if Désert continue to voice Carl in future episodes, producers of the historymaking animated series said they are “very pleased to welcome Alex Désert, playing Carl in the Simpsons season premiere,” in a statement.
Criticism has persisted within the animation landscape about white actors being cast to voice Black characters.
In June, “The Simpsons” producers said that the show “will no longer have White actors voice non-white characters.”
Azaria, who is white, voiced Carl and other characters of color on the Matt Groening series, for decades.
Earlier this year, the Emmy Award winning actor revealed that he would be stepping down from the role of the South Asian character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, which was subject of the controversial 2017 documentary, “The Problem with Apu.”
White actors in other animated series, including Mike Henry of “Family Guy” and Jenny Slate of “Big Mouth,” have also stopped voicing characters of color.
“This has been a rough week. No- year. And then... Yup. This is happening. The resemblance is uncanny! See y ’all Sunday! #thesimpsons #CarlCarlson,” Désert wrote on Instagram Thursday in a now-deleted post.
He also shared a videoclip of him in the recording booth as the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant
employee who refers to himself as “urban Lenny.”
Désert has a background as a voice actor, previously voicing characters in the animated series “Doc Mcstuffins,” “Mr. Pickles” and “Spider-man.”
The New York City native’s credits include “Becker,” “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” and “Reno 911!”