Who voices the Apu character now? His return to The Simpsons comes without Hank Azaria
Apu's first lines on The Simpsons in nine years are a threat.
Sunil Malhotra now voices Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. The character came back on October 18, in "Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening," the second episode of the show's 38th season on Fox. Janina Gavankar joined the cast in the same episode as the new voice of Apu's wife, Manjula.
Malhotra, an actor of Indian descent, has a long voice-acting résumé: The Legend of Korra, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Legend of Vox Machina and Mortal Kombat 11, plus on-screen work on Grey's Anatomy.
How the episode brings him back
The Halloween episode is built as a slasher. Homer, Principal Chalmers, Professor Frink and Mr. Largo each believe they accidentally killed a man. Then someone starts killing them off one by one, leaving notes that say "karma."
The twist is that they all think they killed the same man, and he survived. The killer, dressed as a figure called the Daft Monk, turns out to be Apu, furious that Springfield left him for dead.
"I am the man you left for dead," Apu tells them.
It's a dream. Apu wakes up behind the counter of the Kwik-E-Mart, apparently from a nightmare, and the Daft Monk costume is still sitting under the cash register.
How long he was gone
Apu never left the show entirely. He just stopped talking:
- 2017 — comedian Hari Kondabolu's documentary The Problem with Apu criticizes the character and Hank Azaria's performance of him. That October, Apu speaks for the last time, in "The Serfsons."
- After that — he keeps turning up in the background, silently.
- January 2020 — Azaria, who is white and had voiced Apu since the character's first appearance, says he won't do the voice anymore.
- June 2020 — the producers announce that The Simpsons "will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters."
The announcement in 2020 meant that any return would need a new actor. It took six more years to cast one.
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What the producers and the new Apu say
Executive producer Matt Selman explained the decision to Variety.
The show wanted to "bring him back in a smart, 'Simpsons'-y way that allowed him to evolve," Selman told Variety.
Malhotra's own description of the job: "Bringing Apu back feels like a reclamation. It truly IS his homecoming."
When Azaria stepped away in January 2020, he told /Film the character's future wasn't his to decide: "What they're going to do with the character is their call."
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