Apu Returns to The Simpsons With Sunil Malhotra as His New Voice

Sunil Malhotra is the new voice of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on The Simpsons, and Janina Gavankar now voices his wife, Manjula. Both performances debuted in Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening, broadcast on FOX in the United States on October 18, 2026.

Variety’s original interview report identifies Malhotra as Hank Azaria’s successor. The casting ends Apu’s long silence: he had continued to appear visually during the intervening years.

Who voices Apu and Manjula now?

TheWrap’s October 19 account corroborates both names. Malhotra’s earlier work includes The Legend of Korra and Grey’s Anatomy, as identified in Variety’s report; this is a new assignment within an established acting and voice career.

Malhotra told Variety that he was initially uneasy about auditioning and wanted to discuss how the character would be handled before accepting. He met Selman and co-executive producer Cesar Mazariegos, describing the subsequent work as collaborative. His account places the writing and the producers’ plans alongside the casting change.

Why 2017 and 2020 refer to different things

The dates are easy to collapse, but they mark separate developments:

• 2017: Variety identifies The Serfsons as Apu’s last speaking episode before this return. He was subsequently seen in Springfield without new dialogue.
• 2020: Azaria publicly said he would no longer perform the voice, as TVLine reported on January 17.
• 2026: The October 18 US episode introduces the newly cast voices.

The debate over Apu’s portrayal was examined in Hari Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu, which addressed the impact of stereotypes on South Asian viewers. That context helps explain why the change involves both representation and how the character is written, rather than a simple replacement in the credits.

Will the family appear again?

Executive producer Matt Selman told Variety that Apu, Manjula and their family will appear more often. That supports plans beyond this one appearance, but supplies no named future episode, airdate or fixed run of appearances.

FOXFLASH’s broadcaster listing confirms the episode title and SI-3713 production code for the October 18 US broadcast. That schedule is not a worldwide streaming release: platform access and dates elsewhere need the relevant official local listing.