Mike Henry has stepped down from playing the character Cleveland on “Family Guy,” the latest in a slew of White actors abdicating roles voicing animated characters of color.
The announcement comes shortly after “The Simpsons,” a FOX show like “Family Guy,” declared it would no longer have White actors voice non-White characters.
In an explanation posted to Instagram, Slate wrote, “Black characters on an animated show should be played by Black people.”
But ‘Missy’ is also Black, and Black characters on an animated show should be played by Black people,” she said.
Bell and the creative team behind the show recognize “that the casting of the character of Molly is an opportunity to get representation right – to cast a Black or mixed race actress and give Molly a voice that resonates with all the nuance and experiences of the character as we’ve drawn her,” they wrote in a statement.