Netflix Recasts Ayo Edebiri as Missy on 'Big Mouth'
Netflix Recasts Ayo Edebiri as Missy on 'Big Mouth'
(Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for Clusterfest)

Ayo Edebiri is The New Missy on Netflix's Big Mouth

Comedian Jenny Slate walked away from the role over the summer, citing the need for black actors to voice black characters.

Big Mouth has landed a new Missy.

According to Variety, comedian Ayo Edebiri will step in to replace Jenny Slate on the animated Netflix series. Edebiri will also join the writing room for the show, which is entering its fourth season this fall. The recasting arrives just months after Slate withdrew from the series, announcing on Instagram that she was walking away from the role because "Black characters on an animated show should be played by Black people."

Slate's voice will be heard throughout the majority of the show's upcoming season, as it was almost entirely complete by the time the actress stepped down. Edebiri's voice will reportedly take over in the penultimate episode of the fourth season, a fitting transition point according to the show's co-creator, Nick Kroll. "It’s about Missy’s continued evolution as a person, that she has all of these different parts of who she is. There’s the sidelines Missy and the more sexually adventurous Missy, mirror Missy, and then also this Missy that she’s been discovering through hanging out with her cousins and really taking a look at her Black identity," Kroll tells Variety.

Edebiri had already signed on to write for the show's fourth season before she was offered a role. "Because I had the experience of being in the room and knowing the story, I think that helped with the comfort level," Edibiri says of her new role in the series. She'll voice Missy for the entirety of Big Mouth's fifth season, which is already in the book for the streaming giant.

Netflix has yet to announce a precise premiere date for the show's new season. Stay tuned for the reveal in the weeks and months ahead.

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