Henry Albert "Hank" Azaria is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for his long-running voice roles as Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Professor Frink, Comic Book Guy, Charlton Heston, Snake Jailbird, and other characters in the Fox animated sitcom The Simpsons, since 1989. He is also well-known for voicing various other characters in animated films, including Bartok in Don Bluth's 1997 musical drama film Anastasia and its 1999 spin-off Bartok the Magnificent, Sven in the 2011 Warner Bros. musical comedy film Happy Feet Two, and Carlos and Phil in the 2011 Universal/Illumination hybrid film Hop.
Azaria has also portrayed characters in live-action films, such as Victor "Animal" Palotti in the 1998 reboot of Godzilla, young Patches O'Houlihan in Dodgeball, Agador Spartacus in The Birdcage, and Kahmunrah (along with the Thinker and Abraham Lincoln) in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Additionally, he played Gargamel, the main antagonist of the Sony Pictures live-action Smurfs films, as well as their animated specials. He has also appeared in various television shows, but his most notable role is Jim Brockmire in the IFC sitcom Brockmire.
For Disney, he portrayed Albert Freedman in the 1994 Hollywood Pictures film Quiz Show, Steve Lardner in Grosse Pointe Blank, and Charles Danner in Mystery, Alaska. He also played Marc Blitzstein in the 1999 Touchstone Pictures film Cradle Will Rock, a detective in Pretty Woman, and voiced Goofy in The Simpsons in Plusaversary.
Azaria was born in the Manhattan borough of New York City, the son of Ruth Altcheck and Albert Azaria. His grandparents on both sides were Sephardic Thessalonian Jews (i.e. from the Greek city of Thessaloniki). His family spoke Ladino, also known as Judaeo-Spanish, which he described as "a strange, antiquated Spanish dialect written in Hebrew characters." Azaria's father ran several dress-manufacturing businesses, while his mother raised him and his two older sisters, Stephanie and Elise. Before marrying his father, Azaria's mother had been a publicist for Columbia Pictures, promoting films in Latin American countries as she was fluent in both English and Spanish. During his childhood, Azaria would often "memorize and mimic" the scripts of films, shows, and stand-up comedy routines he enjoyed. He attended Camp Towanda in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and now visits annually as a judge for the camp's Olympics.
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