money Big Mouth casts Ayo Edebiri to replace Jenny Slate as Missy
Netflix (2)
Call Big Mouth the opposite of David Spade, because it's found the right Missy. (Is that anything?)
Writer-comedian Ayo Edebiri will take over as the voice of Missy on Netflix's animated comedy, replacing Jenny Slate, who has voiced the biracial character since the show's inception. Edebiri will take over the role beginning with the penultimate episode of season 4, which is slated to premiere on Netflix this fall.
Slate announced in June that she was stepping down from the role, explaining that "Black characters in animated shows should be played by Black people." At the time, she had already completed work on the fourth season, but the creators found “a really organic and cool place” near the end of the season to bring Edebiri into the role, co-creator Andrew Goldberg told Variety.
The creative team didn't want “Ayo to have to start her journey with this part by matching what Jenny did already,” Goldberg explained. “That’s not a way for her to make it her own.”
“I was definitely a very uncomfortable child, so I think the show speaks to that and a lot of those feelings, which still resonate with me as an adult,” Edebiri added. "I was a true dork. So I don’t think I have to go too far to connect with Missy.”
Before her casting, Edebiri had been hired as a writer for Big Mouth's fifth season. She has previously written for NBC's Sunnyside and the second season of Dickinson on Apple TV+, in which she will also act, in a role created for her after she joined the writers' room. She is also a co-producer on Mulligan, Robert Carlock and Tina Fey’s upcoming animated series for Netflix.
Big Mouth, co-created by Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett, follows a group of middle schoolers as they grapple with the trials and tribulations of puberty, with the help (and hindrance) of their hormones. Netflix renewed the show through season 6 last year, ahead of the release of season 3. The voice cast also includes Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jordan Peele, Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, and Jason Mantzoukas.
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