After a recent media-wide controversy over the casting of white actors for non-white characters, Family Guy has officially announced the new voice actor who will be taking over the role of Cleveland Brown on the long-running show. Some time after Mike Henry decided to step down from the role, it was revealed that Arif Zahir, YouTuber and occasional Cleveland Brown impersonator, would be taking the role on for real after Season 18 completes.
The decision comes after widespread criticism directed at several animated shows. Most notably, the 2017 film The Trouble With Apu, where actor and comedian Hari Kondabolu discusses both the good and bad aspects of The Simpsons depiction of Indian character Apu. In the film, Kondabolu explores the character both as part of a long running institution like The Simpsons, and as a racial stereotype that directly affected the Indian-American community. Part of the criticism was that Apu, an Indian character, was played by Hank Azaria, who is a Jewish man born in America; a practice which Kondabolu compared to blackface.
While the movie was mostly well-received, it also spawned a wave of discussion among similar instances of non-White characters being voiced by White actors. In addition to complaints over Hank Azaria’s work on The Simpsons, Family Guy received criticism over Mike Henry’s voicing Cleveland Brown, and Big Mouth fans had similar concerns over Jenny Slate voicing the character of Missy. While several individuals working on The Simpsons initially pushed back on the criticism, eventually Hank Azaria made the decision to retire from voicing Apu and Carl, a decision that Mike Henry and Jenny Slate also came to.
This is the series of events that led to the casting of Arif as Cleveland Brown. Similarly, it was revealed that Carl in The Simpsons would be voiced by actor Alex Désert in the most recent season, while several other characters caught in casting controversies remain in limbo for the foreseeable future. Despite all the uncertainty, Arif was excited about the opportunity: “When I learned I would get to take over the role? Overabundant gratitude. To Mike, you created something truly special and I promise I will do my absolute best to honor your legacy. To Rich Appel, Alec Sulkin and Seth MacFarlane, thank you for this incredible gift. And to the millions of fans who love this show, I promise not to let you down.”
New episodes of Family Guy air on Fox.
Source: Variety
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply