‘Family Guy’ Star Mike Henry Will No Longer Play Cleveland Brown

Variety ^ | June 26, 2020 | Joe Otterson

[EdnaMode]

Mike Henry is exiting his role as Cleveland Brown on “Family Guy.”

Henry made the announcement Friday on Twitter. “It’s been an honor to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years,” he wrote. “I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role.”

Henry has been with “Family Guy” its first season in 1999. In addition to Cleveland, he also voices Consuela, a Latina maid, on the long-running animated series in addition to numerous other minor characters. Henry also voiced Cleveland and his Black stepson, Rallo Tubbs, on the spin-off series “The Cleveland Show,” which aired on Fox for four seasons from 2009 to 2013.

He is now the latest white actor to announce they will no longer voice a character of color on an animated show. Jenny Slate announced on Wednesday that she would no longer play the biracial character Missy on the popular Netflix show “Big Mouth.” Not long after that, Kristen Bell announced she would be stepping down from her role as a biracial character in the upcoming Apple animated series “Central Park.”

Back in January, Hank Azaria said he would no longer voice the Indian character Apu on “The Simpsons.” Calls for Azaria, who like Brown has voiced the character for decades, to stop playing Apu intensified in 2017 after comedian Hari Kondabolu released the documentary “The Problem With Apu.” The doc explored how people of South Asian descent felt about growing up with Apu as one of their only representatives on American television.

Mike Henry

@mikehenrybro

It’s been an honor to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years. I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role.

[raccoonradio]

Human actors playing animals in Zootopia

Jason Bateman (white):Nick Wilde, fox
Jenny Slate (white): Bellwether, a sheep
Octavia Spencer (black): Mrs Otterton,
an otter
Tiny Lister (black): Finnick, a fennec fox
Idris Elba (black): Chief Bogo, a cape buffalo

Couldn’t they get real animals?

[raccoonradio]

Be sure to tell liberals their hero
Mr Hamilton gave us the electoral
college.If not for that Felonia von
Pantsuit would have become President

[Secret Agent Man]

i guess they will come after megyn price too, she voiced linda memari on american dad

seth will also have to stop voicing stan smith, he’s a straight white male conservative guy who works at the cia

[tnlibertarian]

Where are they going to get the alien to play Roger on American Dad?

[princeofdarkness]

Real name is Espera Oscar de Corti. A paisan from Louisiana.

[Dagnabitt]

And Cleveland's redneck neighbor Lester was voiced by a black actor. It worked out. Nobody cared. But that was before the Crazy Times.

[octex]

Yep. I seem to recall there was a stupid Broadway show called Hamilton, with an all Black cast, a few years ago...

[octex]

And Joe Biden in the role of Elmer Fudd with his shotgun.

[No.6]

Disney etc. are in real trouble the next time they produce one of their anthropomorphic films.

In fact in the spirit of cancel culture one might review their whole catalog and nuke them for every imagined transgression in casting animal A with a white/black/hispanic/whatever voice talent.

[No.6]

Rats (as ‘Remy’ might say). Beat me to it; well done.