Simpsons Creator Matt Groening “Didn’t Have a Problem” With White Actors Voicing Black Characters

Simpsons Creator Matt Groening "Didn't Have a Problem" With White Actors Voicing Black Characters

CREDIT: Wikimedia

Simpsons Creator Matt Groening “Didn’t Have a Problem” With White Actors Voicing Black Characters.

THE creator of the long-running hit TV show, The Simpsons, has said that he “didn’t have a problem” with white actors portraying non-white roles on the cartoon series.

Matt Groening recently spoke to BBC Newsbeat after it was announced on Tuesday, February 23 that white man Harry Shearer, who has provided the voice of Dr Julius Hibbert and loads of other characters on The Simpsons for the past 30 years, has been replaced as the voice of the black doctor by Kevin Michael Richardson.

Groening, who created the Simpsons back in 1989 and has had success with other show’s Futurama and Disenchantment, said: “I think it’s great, times change but I actually didn’t have a problem with the way we were doing it.

“All our actors play dozens of characters each, it was never designed to exclude anyone.”

Last July, the show’s producers committed to “no longer have white actors voice non-white characters,” after Hank Azaria stopped voicing Simpsons Indian character Apu following a 2017 documentary, “The Problem with Apu,” which highlighted potential problems of an ethnic character being voiced by a white person.

The new voice of Dr Julius Hibbert, Kevin Michael Richardson, has already witnessed these types of changes on Family Guy when issues came about with white actor Mike Henry voicing the black character Cleveland. Following the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of George Floyd, Mike Henry stepped away from the show with Arif Zahir taking over the role of Cleveland.


Thank you for taking the time to read this news article “Simpsons Creator Matt Groening “Didn’t Have a Problem” With White Actors Voicing Black Characters”. For more UK daily news, Spanish daily news and Global news stories, visit the Euro Weekly News home page.

Written by

Matthew Roscoe

Originally from the UK, Matthew is based on the Costa Blanca and is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

Comments