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Apu returns to The Simpsons
For almost 30 years, the actor Hank Azaria voiced Apu with a thick, cartoonish Indian accent. In 2017, the comedian Hari Kondabolu made the documentary The Problem with Apu, which surfaced what many South Asians had long felt, that the character was a clumsy stereotype. Azaria soon expressed discomfort with the role, saying at one point that he felt he needed to personally apologize to every Indian person in the country. He never played Apu again.
Maholtra told Variety that over the years he had walked away from other offers to voice South Asian characters when he felt they were caricatures. With Apu, he saw a chance to make the character his own and reclaim him in some way.
The producers have also brought on a South Asian woman to play Apu's wife, Manjula. Earlier this year The Simpsons hit 800 episodes, the longest-running sitcom in American TV history.
How did The Simpsons change casting after 2020?
In June 2020, the show announced that white actors would no longer voice characters of color. Around the same time, other animated series made similar moves, including Family Guy, where Mike Henry stepped away from voicing Cleveland Brown, and Big Mouth, where Jenny Slate left the role of Missy. Hank Azaria had said in January 2020 that he would no longer voice Apu.
How did The Simpsons start as shorts?
The Simpsons began as a series of animated shorts by Matt Groening on The Tracey Ullman Show, starting in 1987. Fox expanded the family into a half-hour series that premiered in December 1989. The show went on to pass Gunsmoke in 2018 as the longest-running American primetime scripted series.
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