After nine years of silence, the Kwik-E-Mart finally has its owner back. The Simpsons has named Sunil Malhotra as Apu’s new voice actor — the first performer to give voice to Apu Nahasapeemapetilon since Hank Azaria stepped away from the role in 2020. The Apu new voice actor news broke after Apu’s surprise return in the season 38 episode “The Revengening,” which aired on October 18, 2026, and it marks one of the most talked-about casting decisions in the show’s 38-season history. Apu last spoke all the way back in October 2017. His comeback episode treated the silence itself as the story — and it revealed a careful, collaborative plan to bring one of television’s most controversial characters back to Springfield. So who is the new voice behind the counter? Why did Malhotra almost walk away from the job? And what does Apu’s return mean for the future of The Simpsons? Here’s the full story.
Who Is Apu’s New Voice Actor?
Sunil Malhotra is a veteran voice actor with one of the most quietly impressive résumés in animation. An Indian-American actor born in New Delhi and raised in Chicago from the age of six months, according to his profile on the Critical Role Wiki, Malhotra studied criminal law at Indiana University before turning to theater — and he has been a working actor ever since. Early on-screen roles included appearances on Grey’s Anatomy (as Sanjay Roy), House, Cold Case, and The West Wing, but since the 2010s he has worked primarily as a voice actor.
His animation credits, documented on The Movie Database, read like a tour of modern cartoons and games: Prince Wu in The Legend of Korra, Gilmore in The Legend of Vox Machina, Stripes in Blaze and the Monster Machines, plus roles in The Casagrandes, Monster High, Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, and a Loud House movie. Gamers know him from League of Legends, Fallout: New Vegas, Valorant, and the Mortal Kombat series, per KZK101. He is also an award-winning audiobook narrator. In other words, the Apu new voice actor announcement didn’t hand the role to a newcomer — it handed it to a seasoned performer who has spent years voicing South Asian characters and thinking hard about how they’re portrayed.
That last part matters, because this casting was never going to be simple. Apu isn’t just any cartoon shopkeeper — he’s a character at the center of one of television’s longest-running debates about race and representation. Whoever took the role would need more than a good voice. He would need the credibility to help reinvent Apu for a new era.
The Night Apu Finally Spoke Again
Apu’s return came in “Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening,” the season 38 Halloween-season episode that aired Sunday, October 18, 2026. It was the first time Apu had a speaking role since the October 2017 episode “The Serfsons” — nearly nine full years of silence. According to USA Today, the episode leaned directly into the character’s absence: Apu appears to seek revenge on Springfield after being abandoned by the town and separated from his family — a storyline that turns out to be a nightmare. The episode ends with Apu back behind the counter at the Kwik-E-Mart, alongside his wife, Manjula — now voiced by The Morning Show actress Janina Gavankar — and Homer inviting him to a Halloween party.
The secrecy around the episode was extraordinary. Review copies were not distributed to critics in advance, and participants in the table read were required to sign non-disclosure agreements, as RocketNews reported. The credited writer was staffer Nick Dahan, with co-executive producer Cesar Mazariegos helping shape the return. The producers clearly understood that Apu’s first line in nine years was an event — and they wanted the world to hear it at the same moment, on air.
Why Apu Went Silent: The Controversy That Shook Springfield
To understand why Apu stopped talking, you have to go back to 2017 — and to a documentary that changed how America saw a beloved cartoon character. The Problem with Apu, by Indian-American comedian Hari Kondabolu, argued that Apu’s portrayal as a heavily accented convenience-store owner had been deeply damaging to South Asian Americans. Kondabolu, as quoted by Polygon, said that “Apu” had even begun being used as a racial slur. “I was really happy about [Apu] initially, because we didn’t exist [on screen], so to exist was a hell of an accomplishment,” Kondabolu said. “When you get a little older, you realize that anything is used as a weapon when you’re a kid and we didn’t have anything else to contrast it with.”
The show’s first response didn’t land. In a 2018 episode, Lisa Simpson addressed the criticism in a meta scene, remarking that “something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect” while a photo of Apu appeared on screen — then asking, “What can you do?” Fans and critics called the moment dismissive, and the pressure kept building.
Then came the turning point. In January 2020, Hank Azaria — the white actor who had voiced Apu since the character’s debut — stepped down from the role. Azaria told The New York Times that once he understood how the character was perceived, he “just didn’t want to participate in it anymore,” adding that “it just didn’t feel right.” In 2021, he apologized publicly on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, saying, “I apologize for my part in creating that and participating in that.” That same year, a Fox representative confirmed to USA Today that the show would no longer have white actors voice non-white characters.
From that point on, Apu remained visible in Springfield but never uttered a single word — a background ghost in his own show, appearing on screen while the producers figured out what to do with him. It was one of the strangest slow fades in TV history: one of the most recognizable voices in animation, silenced by a reckoning the show itself had helped create.
How Sunil Malhotra Became Apu’s New Voice Actor
Here is where the story gets genuinely moving. According to Consequence, which covered Malhotra’s interview with Variety, the actor almost didn’t take the job at all. “When my agent called me about a Simpsons audition, I knew exactly what role it was for, and the idea actually made my stomach sink,” Malhotra said. “Whether the producers knew it or not, I was prepared to walk away.”
He had reason to be cautious. Malhotra revealed that he turned down his first professional job offer — 28 years ago — because it asked him to play into a stereotypical “Hindu guy” portrayal, and that he has rejected similar work multiple times since. Being the butt of the joke, he said, was something he was never willing to do. But curiosity won out: it had been eight years since Apu had spoken, and Malhotra wondered whether the writers’ room looked different now — whether they could bring Apu back in a way that acknowledged and apologized for past mistakes, and whether he could make the character his own.
What convinced him was a series of long conversations with showrunner Matt Selman and co-executive producer Cesar Mazariegos about how Apu’s return would be handled. “My callback was the first of many times that no one at The Simpsons let me down,” Malhotra said, describing what became “a deeply collaborative experience that I hope is equally satisfying for longtime fans of The Simpsons and for other South Asian kids who, like me, stopped watching at some point along the way.” As tbreak reported, Malhotra called the approach “unmistakably Simpsons” — honest about the past without losing what made the character beloved.
His own announcement said everything about the tone. Sharing a photo on Instagram of himself with Janina Gavankar under a hand-drawn “homecoming” sign, Malhotra wrote: “Bringing Apu back feels like a reclamation. It truly IS his homecoming.” Not a reboot. Not a replacement. A reclamation — the word fans have repeated ever since.
What Apu’s Return Means for the Future of The Simpsons
This is not a one-episode cameo. Executive producer Matt Selman told Variety, “We love this character, and wanted to bring him back in a smart, ‘Simpsons’-y way that allowed him to evolve.” He added, “We’re excited by what Sunil has already brought to the role, and look forward to seeing more of Apu in the future” — and confirmed that Apu and the Nahasapeemapetilon family will be seen and heard more regularly going forward, following the reopening of the Kwik-E-Mart.
The timing is no accident. Season 38 premiered on September 27, 2026, and the very next episode — airing October 25 — is the 37th installment of the annual “Treehouse of Horror” tradition. The show is also building toward a major milestone: the second Simpsons movie is currently set for release in September 2027, per Consequence. Apu’s return lands right in the middle of a celebratory stretch for the franchise — and his reintroduction as an evolved character could easily become part of that bigger story.
There’s a broader cultural story here, too. Hollywood’s voice-casting reckoning — the push for actors to voice characters who share their backgrounds — has touched everything from Big Mouth to Central Park. Apu is arguably its most visible test case: a character born from stereotype, silenced for nearly a decade, now being carefully rebuilt by a performer who has lived the other side of the joke. Whether the reinvention works will be judged over the coming season — but the intention, at least, is unmistakable.
Celebrity comebacks always stir the pot — from Lindsay Lohan’s viral October 3 Mean Girls recreation to Joe Manganiello opening up about his health crisis — and few entertainment moments travel faster than a surprise casting twist. But Apu’s return feels different: less like a stunt, more like a settlement with the past.
6 Things to Remember About Apu’s Comeback
- Sunil Malhotra is the new voice: the Indian-American voice veteran debuted as Apu in “The Revengening” on October 18, 2026 — Apu’s first speaking role since “The Serfsons” in October 2017.
- Manjula got a new voice too: Janina Gavankar (The Morning Show) now voices Apu’s wife, taking over a role previously performed by Jan Hooks and Tress MacNeille.
- He almost said no: Malhotra told Variety the audition “made my stomach sink” and that he was prepared to walk away — he only signed on after deep talks with producers about handling the character respectfully.
- “A reclamation”: Malhotra’s own word for the project, announced alongside a homecoming photo with Gavankar on Instagram.
- The controversy, in brief: Hari Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu sparked the reckoning; Hank Azaria stepped down in 2020 and apologized in 2021; Apu stayed on screen but silent until now.
- He’s here to stay: producers say Apu and the Nahasapeemapetilon family will appear and speak more regularly going forward — and with a second Simpsons movie coming in September 2027, the timing could hardly be bigger.
The Bottom Line
Nine years ago, The Simpsons did something no cartoon had done before: it muted one of its most famous characters rather than answer for him. This week, it did something just as unprecedented — it brought him back with the very thing the controversy demanded: a South Asian performer, a seat at the writers’ table, and a storyline that treats the silence itself as something worth addressing. Sunil Malhotra’s Apu won’t erase the decades of debate, and it shouldn’t try to. But “reclamation” is exactly the right word for what’s happening: a character reclaimed by the community he once caricatured, voiced by an actor who turned down stereotypical roles for 28 years rather than take them. When Apu spoke again on October 18, 2026, it wasn’t just a punchline landing — it was a promise being kept. Welcome home, Apu. Thank you, come again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Apu’s new voice actor?
Apu’s new voice actor is Sunil Malhotra, an Indian-American voice veteran known for The Legend of Vox Machina (Gilmore), The Legend of Korra (Prince Wu), Grey’s Anatomy, and video games including League of Legends, Fallout: New Vegas, and Valorant. He debuted as Apu in the season 38 episode “The Revengening,” which aired October 18, 2026.
Why did Hank Azaria stop voicing Apu?
Hank Azaria stepped down in January 2020 after years of criticism that Apu’s portrayal relied on racial stereotypes about South Asians — criticism amplified by Hari Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu. Azaria said the role “just didn’t feel right” and apologized publicly in 2021. Fox also confirmed the show would no longer have white actors voice non-white characters.
When did Apu last speak on The Simpsons?
Apu last had a speaking role in the October 2017 episode “The Serfsons.” After Hank Azaria stepped away in 2020, the character remained visible in Springfield but silent until “Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening” on October 18, 2026 — nearly nine years later.
Who voices Manjula now?
Janina Gavankar, known for The Morning Show, is the new voice of Apu’s wife, Manjula. The role was previously performed by Jan Hooks and Tress MacNeille. Executive producer Matt Selman confirmed both Apu and Manjula will be seen and heard more regularly going forward.
Will Apu appear in more episodes?
Yes. Producer Matt Selman told Variety that Apu and the Nahasapeemapetilon family will feature more prominently in upcoming episodes as the character evolves. With the annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode airing October 25, 2026, and a second Simpsons movie set for September 2027, Apu’s return arrives at a major moment for the franchise.