'The Simpsons’ to feature show's first deaf voice actor
'Miracle on Evergreen Terrace', The Simpsons
The makers of Simpsons surelyknowhow to win millions ofhearts.
The show, which is running for over three decades now will use American Sign Language for the first time. Apart from featuring ASL, the show will also feature a deaf voice actor in the show's history for the first time, as per Variety.
The upcoming episode titled 'The Sound of Bleeding Gums' is set on Lisa Simpson who finds out that her idol and mentorBleeding Gums Murphy, has a son named Monk, and he is born deaf. In the episode, she will help Monk who wants to get a cochlear implant.
Loni Steele Sosthand has penned the notable episode of the animated show and revealed that the show is somewhere inspired by herown family and herbrother Eli Steele, who is also born deaf.
Speaking to Variety, Loni talked about the episode's connection with his family,“I’m mixed race; my father’s Black and jazz was big in our house,”
Further adding, she said,“We grew up in the suburbs, and it was a way for my dad to bring in that aspect of our culture. But when I think about music, I also think about my brother, who was born deaf. When we were talking about this Bleeding Gums character in our initial brainstorms, we thought, wouldn’t it be cool if Lisa discovers this whole other side of his life. That led to him having a son, and then we based that character at least somewhat on my brother. And the story grew from there.”
Sosthand's brother Eli and other deaf performers will also voice different characters in the episode.
Taking to the Twitter handle, Producer Al Jean shared an image of the new character Monk with Lisa, writting, ''It's very hard to do a "first" after 722 episodes. But I couldn't be more excited about this one.''
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Deaf actor John Autry II has voiced the character of the deaf boyMonk, hence becoming the first deaf actor to voice a character on the show since its beginning.
Praising the idea of hiring a deaf actor to play the role, Autry said in an interview with Variety, “It’s so incredible,”
“It’s life-changing equality and participation. This can impact change for all of us. It’s about hard of hearing and hearing characters coming together. It’s a part of history,'' he added further.
