Hank Azaria is a very well-known American actor, comedian, writer, and voice actor. His voice-over work on The Simpsons, a popular animated TV show, has made him very well-known. Even though he had little to no experience before joining the show, he did a great job.
Hank has been doing the voices of many characters in the sitcom, including Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Snake Jailbird, and, in the past, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Lou, Carl Carlson, Bumblebee Man, and others.
Hank has made a name for himself in his field and has won several awards for the quality of his work. He made his dream life come true, and now he lives it in style.
Hank Azaria Early Life
Hank Azaria was born on April 25, 1964, in Manhattan, a part of New York City. Ruth Altcheck and Albert Azaria are his parents. His mother raised him and his two sisters while his father ran several businesses that made dresses.
As a child, he would often “memorize and imitate” the scripts of movies, TV shows, and stand-up comedy routines that he liked. After being in a school play when he was 16, he became interested in acting. He remembers being “obsessed with acting” instead of doing his schoolwork.
Hank finished high school at The Kew-Forest School in the Queens neighborhood of Forest Hill.
His parents loved all kinds of show business and were always there for him. They stood by him, and from 1981 to 1985, he went to Tufts University to study drama. He even became friends with actor Oliver Platt when he was in college. Hank seems to have been inspired by Oliver and even noticed that Platt was a better actor than him.
Hank then went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts to train. He started acting in an Italian commercial when he was only 17.
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He and Oliver started a theater company called Big Theatre so they could mostly keep working as actors. Hank soon realized that TV would be a better choice with more options.
After that, he moved to Los Angeles because a talent agent named Harry Gold asked him to work for him.
How Hank Azaria Became famous?
Hank didn’t become successful overnight. He said that his progress was slow. He had a few small parts on TV shows and in movies. During the filming of the failed pilot Morning Maggie, he even became friends with Matthew Perry.
Between acting and training, he kept working to add to his income. He did stand-up comedy and worked as a bartender for a catering company.
Hank became known when he started doing voices for The Simpsons. He had only done one other job as a voice actor before. It was for the animated dog named Hollywood Dog in the failed Fox pilot of the same name.
He impressed the producers of The Simpsons, and by the second season, he had the part. With the animated show, he made his name. His co-star on The Simpsons, Nancy Cartwright, wrote, “The thing I remember most about Hank is how quiet he was at first, but how his skills and contributions to the show grew as time went on. I knew Hank was going to be our standout performer.”
Hank has worked on more than just the animated sitcom. He played Phoebe’s boyfriend on the well-known show Friends.
He kept working in the theater and did a few movies as well. Hank also did voice work for a number of other shows and characters.
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Net worth
Hank was paid $30,000 per episode of The Simpsons until 1998. After that, all of the voice actors asked for raises, and after years of fighting and threats to end the show, they finally started getting $300,000 per episode.
Hank has a jaw-dropping net worth of over $90 million. He has made all this money and acted in several movies and TV shows. No wonder Hank said his progress was gradual.
Along with all of these riches, Hank has also won four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work on The Simpsons. He has won a total of six Emmy Awards and one Screen Actors Guild Award.