‘Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’: Meet the first African-American April

Nickelodeon is delivering a fresh new take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but the Turtles aren’t the only ones who have received a big redesign.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will also feature the first African-American April O’Neil, who will be voiced by Kat Graham. The character features red-rimmed glasses, a green jacket, blue pants, and a yellow shirt and shoes, rocking two Afro Puffs in her hair.

It also appears she might be getting some powers of her own, at least from the color of that baseball bat she’s holding. Each of the Turtles is brandishing powered weapons with their own color scheme, and April’s is a bright neon green. So in other words, she looks awesome and gets some nifty powers? This might just be the best April O’Neil yet!

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While this is actually the first time the character has been African American on television or film, there has been a spirited debate about whether she was always supposed to be African-American. The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic series was black and white, and co-creator Kevin Eastman has mentioned in the past that the character was originally supposed to be African-American, but you just couldn’t tell thanks to the book’s black and white nature. Co-creator Peter Laird has said differently though, explaining that the character was always supposed to be Caucasian, hence the Irish last name.

If you look at the original art from the comics, it is extremely hard to tell one way or another, and you can see an example of this above.

Since the animated series though the character has always been portrayed as Caucasian, both in films, comics, and other animated series. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles though is shaking things up, and fans can tune in to see the new April O’Neil in action later this year.

You can check out new photos of the whole cast of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the gallery, and for more details on the new series, you can head here.

The new series will consist of 26 episodes and is co-executive produced by Andy Suriano (Samurai Jack) and Ant Ward (TMNT). The series will be directed by longtime voice actor Rob Paulsen, who voiced Donatello in the previous series.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will debut on Nickelodeon later this year.