Hank Azaria


 * This article is about the voice actor. For the character, see Hank Azaria (character).

Hank Azaria (born April 25, 1964) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, producer, director and writer. He voices Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Comic Book Guy and numerous other characters on The Simpsons. He was also interviewed in The Simpsons: Access All Areas, The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice!, and The Simpsons: America's First Family. He will also host The Simpsons Take the Bowl.

The Simpsons
He is most famous for his voice work on The Simpsons. He joined the show aged 25, having previously performed only one voice over as an animated dog in the Fox pilot Hollywood Dog. The first voice he performed was that of town bartender Moe Szyslak, redubbing Christopher Collins who had voiced the character in the original track. Having known him from the failed pilot, casting director Bonnie Pietila called Azaria and asked to audition for the voice of Moe. At the time he was doing a play, in which he performed the role of a drug dealer, basing his voice on in . He used that voice in the audition, and was told by Matt Groening and Sam Simon to make it more gravelly, with it becoming the voice of Moe. Groening and Simon thought it was perfect and took Azaria over to the Fox recording studio. Before he had even seen a script, he recorded several lines of dialogue as Moe for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening". Azaria did not expect to hear from the show again but they continued to call him back, first to perform the voice of Chief Wiggum, and then Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, until eventually during the second season he was doing numerous voices. At that point he was given a contract and made a permanent member of the cast and has remained ever since. He has won three Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on the show in the category "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance".

He also voices Carl Carlson, Comic Book Guy, Lou, Dr. Nick, Snake, Professor Frink, Horatio McCallister, Raphael, Superintendent Chalmers, Cletus Spuckler, Kirk Van Houten and others.

Many of his character's voices were loosely based on other people:
 * As said, Moe is based on Al Pacino.
 * Apu is loosely based on 's character Hrundi V. Bakshi from the film .
 * Wiggum was initially based on but Azaria later sped the voice up to sound like.
 * Lou is based on.
 * Dr. Nick is a bad impression of.
 * Raphael is based on.
 * Snake's is based on Azaria's old college roommate.
 * Comic Book Guy's voice is based on a student who lived in the room next door to Azaria at college, who went by the name "F".
 * Professor Frink is based on Jerry Lewis's performance in the original The Nutty Professor.
 * Sea Captain's is based on 's portrayal of many pirates.
 * Azaria based his performance for Frank Grimes on actor . He counts Grimes as the hardest, most emotional performance he has ever had to give in the history of The Simpsons.

Other work
Azaria has had an incredibly active career outside The Simpsons during his time on the show. He has had starring or recurring guest roles on the TV shows ', ', ' and ' from 2004 to 2006 as the lead character Dr. Craig "Huff" Huffstodt, as well as winning an Emmy for playing Mitch Albom in the miniseries . He has appeared in numerous movies such as ' (1994), ' (1995), ' (1996), ' (1998), ' (1999), ' (2001), ' (2004), ' (2010) and as Gargamel in the 2011 and 2013 films  and ''.

Though Azaria had no regular role on Futurama, he provided the voice of Harold Zoid (uncle of Dr. Zoidberg) in the episode "That's Lobstertainment!".

Trivia

 * Hank Azaria's favorite The Simpsons episode is "Cape Feare".