Actress Kerry Washington is set to voice the part of Rayshelle Peyton, Bart Simpson’s fourth-grade teacher on the long-running animated sitcom ‘The Simpsons’.
Washingtons’ alter ego is a replacement for Mrs Krabappel, who was voiced by the late Marcia Wallace until her death in 2013.
The ‘Scandal’ star told Entertainment Weekly: “She’s a great teacher. But like all the best teachers, she knows that her students have just as much to teach her as she has to teach them.
“And teaching Bart is a job filled with growth opportunities.”
The show’s Emmy-winning co-executive producer Carolyn Omine created the part.
She said: “She’s really good at figuring out what the kids need, but she can’t really figure out what his problem is until he finally comes clean.”
Omine had been keen to get Washington on the show after being impressed by her comedic genius when she hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2013.
She said: “I had always known she was a super-talented actress who had great range, but just never knew she was funny. She had a lot of characters and just really great comic timing, and I was like, ‘We should really think of using her’.”
The actress made it known that she would like to voice black characters following a backlash, which saw white voice actor Hank Azaria quit portraying the parts of people of colour, including Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.
