Over the past week, we've seen several voice-actors who play Black or bi-racial characters on animated shows step away from their roles, and Mike Henry announced today that he will no longer be voicing Cleveland Brown on Family Guy, who he has voiced for more than twenty years.
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. pic.twitter.com/FmKasWITKT
— Mike Henry (@mikehenrybro) June 26, 2020
Mike Henry has been a part of Family Guy since the very beginning, voicing a variety of characters in addition to Cleveland, including Consuela, Herbert, Bruce, and more. Henry also voiced Cleveland, as well as his step-son Rallo Tubbs, on the Family Guy spin-off series, The Cleveland Show, which aired on Fox for four season. It was announced several days ago that Jenny Slate would be stepping down from voicing Missy on Netflix's Big Mouth, and Kristen Bell followed suit by exiting the role of Molly on Apple TV's Central Park. Both of those roles are expected to be recast with a Black or bi-racial actor.
