Play all audios:
Dr. Julius Hibbert, Springfield's resident doctor, has been played by white actor Harry Shearer for over 20 years, but his run as the character is coming to an end. _The Simpsons_ has
confirmed that the recent Mrs. Krabappel tribute episode "Diary Queen" will be Shearer's final voice appearance as Dr. Hibbert, and a new actor will take over for the Sunday,
February 28 episode of the Fox show. The actor, however, will still very much be a part of _The Simpsons_' voice cast, as he is also the man behind characters like Mr. Burns, Principal
Skinner and Ned Flanders. Taking over as Dr. Hibbert is Black actor Kevin Michael Richardson, the _Mortal Kombat_ actor and Emmy nominee (for _F is for Family_) who has provided voices for
minor character on _The Simpsons_ since 2009. The voice actor also plays Jerome on _Family Guy_, Principal Lewis on _American Dad_, and Groot on the _Guardians of the Galaxy_ animated
series. This change in casting comes eight months after a statement from Fox's senior VP of corporate communications Lee Eisner, which read, "Moving forward, _The Simpsons_ will no
longer have white actors voice non-white characters." This came in the midst of Black Lives Matter protests over police violence, and also saw shows like _Big Mouth_ and _Family Guy_
replacing white actors who voiced characters of color with actors of color. Shearer had previously expressed some skepticism about this change, telling the U.K.'s _Times Radio:_ "I
think there's a conflation between representation, which is important. People from all backgrounds should be represented in the writing and producing ends of the business so they help
decide what stories to tell and with what knowledge. Performance... is playing the part you are not." Dr. Hibbert is not the first character on the show to be replaced. At the start of
the current season of the long-running animated series, _Better Things_ star Alex Desert took over the role of Carl Carlson from Hank Azaria. Desert is also the new voice of Azaria's
other Black character, Officer Lou. Two episodes later, in Season 32, Episode 3, Azaria was also replaced as the voice for the Latino character Bumblebee Man. Taking on the role was
Cuban-born Eric Lopez, who last year did a number of voices for the video games _Spider-Man: Miles Morales_ and the _Final Fantasy VII_ remake. New voice actors for a number of smaller
characters have yet to be announced. These include Dr. Julius' own wife Bernice, who is technically still voiced by Tress MacNeille—though the character has not had any lines on the
show since 2019. A controversial non-white character, however, is also yet to be recast. Azaria is still the actor voicing Dr. Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the Indian Kwik-E-Mart operator.
However, the character has not spoken on the show since 2017. The retirement of the character's voice came shortly after the release of_ The Problem with Apu_, Hari Kondablu's
documentary highlighting the racist tropes that informed the character. Though the show is still reportedly looking for an actor to cast in the role, to many it is a character with much
bigger problems than the fact he is voiced by a white person. _The Simpsons_ Season 32 continues Sundays at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT on Fox. Episodes stream on Hulu shortly after airing.
Previous seasons stream on Disney+.