Born Henry Albert Azaria on April 25, 1964 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, Hank Azaria is an American film, television and stage actor, director, voice actor, and comedian. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons (1989-present), on which he performs the voices of Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Carl Carlson and numerous others. Azaria, who attended Tufts University, joined the show with little voice acting experience, but became regular in its second season. Many of his performances on the show are based on famous actors and characters; Moe’s voice, for example, is based on actor Al Pacino.
He is the son of Sephardic Jewish parents from Thessaloniki, Greece. His father, Albert, ran several dress-manufacturing businesses, while his mother raised him and his two older sisters, Stephanie and Elise. Before marrying his father, his mother had been a publicist for Columbia Pictures, promoting films in Latin American countries, as she was fluent in both English and Spanish. Throughout childhood, Azaria often memorized and mimicked the scripts of the films, shows and stand-up comedy routines that he enjoyed.
When he was 17, Azaria began making strides as a professional actor around the time he was still in high school at The Kew-Forest School, landing auditions and jobs on commercials. He moved on to study drama at Tufts University in Medford, MA, where he became fast friends with fellow actor Oliver Platt. The two worked on several college plays together, including memorable productions of William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” – Azaria played Salerio to Platt’s Shylock – and Harold Pinter’s “The Dumb Waiter.” With his sights set on a stage career, Azaria moved back to New York City, where he furthered his dramatic studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
After being offered the opportunity to work with talent agent Harry Gold, he then moved to Los Angeles, California. After moving to Los Angeles, Azaria got an agent, and was trained by acting coach Roy London. For a time, in between acting jobs, he performed as a stand-up comedian, and worked as a bartender for a catering firm. He made his first television appearance with a role in the pilot episode of the 1986 ABC comedy-drama series Joe Bash, which starred Peter Boyle. His part – a one-line role as the police officer Maldonado – was edited out before the show’s broadcast, although the role secured him admission to the Screen Actors Guild. In 1991, Azaria nabbed a major role in the Fox live-action sitcom Herman’s Head, which ran until 1994 and gave audiences a glimpse of the man responsible for the vocal intonations of some of the most famous characters to ever corrupt an animator’s storyboard.
Though his Simpsons work continued unabated over the years, beginning in the mid-1990s Azaria branched out somewhat, placing a heavier emphasis on live-action portrayals. Azaria has also departed from the boundaries of screen comedy from time to time, doing memorable work across genre lines in such films as Great Expectations (1998) (which cast him as Gwyneth Paltrow’s lackluster fiancé), Mystery Men (1999) (as the superhero Blue Raja), and Tim Robbins’ Cradle Will Rock (1999), a historical drama about art and politics in 1930s New York that cast Azaria as leftist playwright Marc Blitzstein. In 2005, Azaria presided as one of the many off-color monologuists in Penn Jillette’s stand-up comedy showcase film The Aristocrats; the performer subsequently provided at least seventeen voices (including his usual series roles) for The Simpsons Movie (2007) and voiced both Abbie Hoffmann and Allen Ginsberg in the animated sequences of Brett Morgen’s offbeat documentary Chicago 10 (2007).
In July 1999, Azaria married actress Helen Hunt, with whom he co-starred in several episodes of the sitcom Mad About You. The two divorced within eighteen months.
Hank Azaria Photo Gallery
