You’ve seen his face. You definitely know his voice. But honestly, most people couldn't name five Hank Azaria movies and tv shows if there was a metaphorical gun to their head. It’s the great paradox of the modern character actor. He is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He is a six-time Emmy winner and a Tony nominee, yet he can probably walk down a crowded street in Manhattan without being swarmed by paparazzi.
That’s by design.
Hank Azaria is a chameleon. Not the kind of "prestige" chameleon like Daniel Day-Lewis who goes and lives in the woods to play a cobbler, but the kind of working-class chameleon who shows up, steals a scene from Robin Williams, and then disappears back into a recording booth to play a yellow-skinned bartender.
The Simpsons and the Voice That Built a Network
Let's get the big one out of the way. When we talk about Hank Azaria movies and tv shows, we are talking about The Simpsons. It is the gravitational center of his career. He joined the show in 1989 when he was basically a kid, and since then, he has voiced a small army of Springfield residents.
Most people know he does Moe Szyslak. The gravelly, "dog day afternoon" Al Pacino impression that became the voice of every lonely drunk in America. But the range is actually kind of terrifying. He’s Chief Wiggum. He’s Comic Book Guy. He’s Cletus. He’s Professor Frink. He was even the original Carl Carlson before the show (rightfully) decided to recast the role with Alex Désert to better reflect the character's background.
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And then there’s Apu.
We can’t talk about Azaria without talking about the Apu controversy. For years, he voiced the Kwik-E-Mart proprietor, winning Emmys and making "Thank you, come again" a national catchphrase. But as the documentary The Problem with Apu pointed out, the character became a tool for bullying and a lazy stereotype. Azaria handled it with a level of grace you rarely see in Hollywood. He didn't get defensive. He didn't rail against "cancel culture." Instead, he listened, apologized, and stepped away from the role in 2020. It was a rare moment of actual growth from a public figure.
Stealing Scenes: The Movies You Forgot He Was In
If you look at the list of Hank Azaria movies, it reads like a "Best of" the 90s and early 2000s. He has this weird ability to be the best part of a mediocre movie and the secret weapon of a great one.
- The Birdcage (1996): This is his masterpiece. As Agador Spartacus, the Guatemalan housekeeper who can't wear shoes because they make him fall down, he somehow managed to be funnier than Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. That’s like out-dribbling Michael Jordan.
- Mystery Men (1999): Long before the MCU made every superhero a household name, Azaria played The Blue Raja. A hero who flings forks. It’s a cult classic that was way ahead of its time.
- Godzilla (1998): Okay, the movie was a mess. But Azaria as "Animal," the cameraman who nearly gets stepped on by a giant lizard, was the only human element that felt real.
- Along Came Polly (2004): He plays Claude, the French scuba instructor with the "are you cereal?" accent. It is incredibly stupid. It is also the only part of that movie anyone remembers.
He’s also popped up in prestige stuff. Go watch Quiz Show or Shattered Glass. He brings a certain "regular guy" gravitas that grounds those films. He’s not playing a caricature there; he’s playing a man who knows exactly how the world works and is slightly tired of it.
The Gritty Pivot: Brockmire and Beyond
For a long time, Azaria was the "funny voice guy." But then came Brockmire.
If you haven't seen this show on IFC (or Hulu/various streamers), you are genuinely missing out. It started as a Funny Or Die sketch about a baseball announcer who has a public meltdown after discovering his wife’s infidelity. Azaria turned it into four seasons of the most cynical, heart-breaking, and hilarious television of the last decade.
Jim Brockmire is a man who speaks in a permanent "announcer voice," even when he’s doing things that definitely don't require an announcer voice. It’s a performance about the masks we wear and the ways we hide from our own trauma. It’s easily his best live-action work.
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In the last year or so, including his 2024 and 2025 projects like the Broadway run of All In: Comedy About Love, he's been leaning more into these complex, older-man roles. He was in Hello Tomorrow! on Apple TV+, playing a space-age salesman with a gambling problem. He was in The Idol (the less said about that, the better). He even showed up in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The Broadway Connection
Most people don't realize Azaria is a theater kid at heart. He was the original Sir Lancelot in Spamalot. He got a Tony nomination for it. He’s been back on stage recently in late 2024 and early 2025, proving that he still has the "live" chops. There is something about his energy that works better when he has a crowd to feed off of. He's a technician. He knows exactly where the laugh is buried in a sentence and he knows how to dig it out.
What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception about Hank Azaria movies and tv shows is that he’s "just" an impressionist.
An impressionist copies. Azaria inhabits. When he does a voice, he isn't just mimicking a sound; he's building a biography. He once said that Moe’s voice came from an Al Pacino impression he was doing in a play where he played a drug dealer. He just pitched it up and added a layer of misery.
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He's also incredibly honest about the industry. In recent interviews in 2025, he’s talked openly about the "sad" reality of AI in the voice-acting world. He’s worried—and honestly, we should be too—that the soul of these characters will be lost if we just start feeding scripts into a machine. You can’t program the specific, human "brokenness" that Azaria brings to a character like Brockmire or Moe.
Actionable Insights for the Azaria Fan
If you want to actually appreciate the depth of his career, don't just stick to the hits. Here is how to actually "watch" Hank Azaria:
- Watch The Birdcage and Brockmire back-to-back. It is the same man. The physical transformation and the vocal shift are a masterclass in acting.
- Listen to his interviews. Specifically his recent appearances on podcasts like Armchair Expert or The Dan Le Batard Show. He talks about recovery, codependency, and the craft of acting with a vulnerability that is rare for someone of his stature.
- Check out his short film, "Nobody's Perfect." He wrote, directed, and starred in it. It’s a glimpse into the kind of stories he wants to tell when he’s the one in the director’s chair.
- Look for the "Blue Raja" in yourself. We all have a useless talent we think is a superpower.
Hank Azaria has spent thirty-plus years being the most versatile tool in the Hollywood shed. Whether he’s a pharaoh in Night at the Museum or a sports writer in Tuesdays with Morrie, he brings a level of craft that makes everyone around him look better. He doesn't need to be a "movie star" in the traditional sense. He's something better: he's indispensable.