Actor Alex Désert has been announced as the new voice of Carl Carlson on The Simpsons.
As reported by Variety, Désert will voice the long-running character, who works with Homer Simpson at the nuclear power plant, during season 32’s premiere on Sunday (27 September).
Désert, 52, is best known for appearing on The Flash and The Heights, as well as voicing Nick Fury in the animated Marvel series The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
The actor will replace Hank Azaria, who has voiced the character for 30 years. In January, Azaria stepped back from voicing Indian shopkeeper Apu over claims that the character is racist.
The Simpsons’ producers pledged in June that they would “no longer have white actors voice non-white characters”.
The Independent has approached Fox for comment.
In the wake of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, many animated shows have pledged to diversify their voice casts and not have white actors voicing non-white roles.
Kristen Bell stepped down from voicing a mixed-race character in cartoon series Central Park, while Jenny Slate quit the role of black high school student Missy in Big Mouth.
Earlier this week, Rick and Morty creators Dan Harmon and Scott Marder discussed the practice of “whitewashing” in animation, describing the conversation as a “minefield”.
