Harry Shearer Stepping Away From Voicing Black Character 'The Simpsons'; Kevin Michael Richardson Will Replace Him

Kevin Michael Richardson will be taking over the voice role of Dr. Hibbert on The Simpsons.

The Wrap reports that Harry Shearer, a white actor, will step away from the role since season two.

“Last night’s episode ‘DiaryQueen’ featured Harry Shearer as the voice of Dr. Hibbert for the last time,” 20th Television shared in a statement to the site. “Next Sunday’s episode ‘Wad Goals’ will have Kevin Michael Richardson voicing Dr. Hibbert — and from there on out he will voice the character.”

The recasting comes after the show announced that they were going to replace every non-person of color voicing a character of color on the long running series.

“Moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have White actors voice non-White characters,” the show said in a statement last year.

The issue with The Simpsons having White actors play non-white characters was brought to light with Apu, the show’s Indian Kwik-E-Mart proprietor, in 2017.

From there, Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell also stepped back from voicing characters of color on two other animated series.

Kevin has voiced other characters in the show since 2001 and is also a familiar voice from Family Guy.