Jack Ryan and The Wire Star Wendell Pierce Wants to Play Cleveland on Family Guy

Hours after Mike Henry stepped down from voicing Cleveland Brown on Family Guy, The Wire alum Wendell Pierce is throwing his hat into the ring as the new potential voice actor behind the character. In a tweet to his followers Sunday afternoon, Pierce said he’s officially starting a campaign to get him in the role using the #WendellIsCleveland hashtag.

“Now that Mike Henry has consciously given up the role of Cleveland, I am publicly starting a campaign to voice the role myself on The Cleveland Show,” Pierce tweeted. Though The Cleveland Show stopped producing episodes in 2013, the namesake of the series — character Cleveland Brown — has since returned as a main character on Seth MacFarlane’s main Family Guy show.

Over the course of the past week, many voice actors have been removed from positions in which they voice characters of color. Henry announced he was voluntarily stepping away from the Cleveland Brown role in a tweet on Friday.

“It’s been an honor to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years. I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color,” Henry shared on Twitter. “Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role.”

Earlier in the week, both Jenny Slate and Kirsten Bell stepped away from comparable situations.

“This is a time to acknowledge our acts of complicity. Heres 1 of mine. Playing the Molly in Central Park shows a lack of awareness of my pervasive privilege,” Bell said in astatement to her followers. “Casting a mixed race character w/a white actress undermines the specificity of the mixed race & Black American experience.”

She continued, “It was wrong and we, on the Central Park team, are pledging to make it right. I am happy to relinquish this role to someone who can give a much more accurate portrayal and I will commit to learning, growing and doing my part for equality and inclusion.”