Celebrated “The Wire” and “Jack Ryan” actor Wendell Pierce is campaigning to become the new voice of Cleveland Brown on FOX’s animated hit “Family Guy”.
Longtime Cleveland actor Mike Henry stepped down from the role after voicing the character for twenty years, joining numerous other white actors who have stepped away from voicing black characters in recent weeks following the Black Lives Matter protests.
Pierce announced his desire to voice Cleveland on Sunday in a tweet saying: “Now that Mike Henry has consciously given up the role of Cleveland, I am publicly starting a campaign to voice the role myself on The Cleveland Show.”
While “The Cleveland Show” spin-off was canceled in 2013, Pierce could certainly play Cleveland on “Family Guy”. The actor has also done animation voice work before with guest spots on FX’s “Archer” and Disney XD’s “Pickle and Peanut”.
