Thank you, but Hank Azaria won’t be coming again.
The Emmy Award-winning actor known as the voice of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on “The Simpsons” — the longtime character who owns the Kwik-E-Mart convenience store — has stepped down from that role, according to a report in Slash Film.
“All we know there is I won’t be doing the voice anymore, unless there’s [some way] to transition it or something,” Azaria told the site. He later added it was a mutual decision between him and the show’s producers, saying: “We all made the decision together. We all agreed on it. We all feel like it’s the right thing and good about it.”
A “Simpsons” rep tells The Post there is no comment on this matter.
Azaria has voiced Apu since February 1990, making his debut in a first-season episode titled “The Telltale Head.” Azaria, who’s also long been known for his role in “The Birdcage,” won four Emmys for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work on “The Simpsons.”
Slash Film adds that even without Azaria, Apu could remain on “The Simpsons.”
“What they’re going to do with the character is their call,” Azaria told the site. “It’s up to them and they haven’t sorted it out yet. All we’ve agreed on is I won’t do the voice anymore.”
The role of Apu has not come without controversy.
In the 2017-released documentary “The Problem With Apu,” comedian Hari Kondabolu first addressed the issues surrounding Apu — mainly, white actors portraying South Asians as stereotypes.
Several months after its release, in an interview with USA Today, the show’s creator, Matt Groening, addressed Apu’s portrayal as stereotypical.
“I’m proud of what we do on the show. And I think it’s a time in our culture where people love to pretend they’re offended,” he said.
That elicited a response from Kondabolu, saying Groening “sounds like every other troll on the internet who didn’t see the documentary . . . It was, at times, insulting and was frustrating to many of us who were solely represented by that one image.”
Just before Groening offered his remarks, Azaria addressed the controversy on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
“I think the most important thing is to listen to Indian people and their experience with it,” he said on the show. “I really want to see Indian, South Asian writers in the writers room . . . including how [Apu] is voiced or not voiced. I’m perfectly willing to step aside. It just feels like the right thing to do for me.”