Emmy Raver-Lampman Replaces Kristen Bell As Mixed-Race Animated Character

Source: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty

About a month after Kristen Bell announced that she was stepping away from voicing the mixed-race character Molly on Apple’s Central Park animated series, her replacement has come in the form of Hamilton and Umbrella Academy actress Emmy Raver-Lampman.

The addition of Emmy will maker her the show’s third former Hamilton cast member, joining Leslie Odom Jr.–who plays Molly’s father Owen Tillerman–and Daveed Diggs–who voices the assistant to Stanley Tucci’s tyrannical Bitsy Brandenham.

Molly’s re-casting comes as the animated entertainment world works to fix some of their racial problems along with the rest of the world, with multiple white actors pulling out of their roles voicing characters of color.

Kristin Bell’s removal from the role was announced in a statement from the show’s creative team back in June, which said the following:

“Casting of the character of Molly is an opportunity to get representation right – to cast a Black or mixed race actress and give Molly a voice that resonates with all of the nuance and experiences of the character as we’ve drawn her.”

Bell also went on to release her own statement at the time, saying that her voicing the character “shows a lack of awareness of my pervasive privilege.” Her statement went on to say,  “Casting a mixed race character w/a white actress undermines the specificity of the mixed race & Black American experience.”

On the same day Kristen Bell broke the news of her departure, Jenny Slate announced that she was no longer going to voice Missy Foreman-Greenwald, a biracial character on Netflix’s Big Mouth.