The Simpsons' French voice cast: everything about the dub

DUBBING GUIDE

The Simpsons' French voice cast: everything about the dub

Eight actors for a whole town, a "T'oh!" born from a screen test, an entire lexicon that exists only in French: the complete guide to the French version, and to the other French version, the one from Quebec.

1990

First French broadcast on Canal+, on 15 December

Regular actors in the current French team

Seasons directed by Christian Dura, from 1989 to 2022

Distinct French-language dubs: France and Quebec

You have probably spent more hours with Philippe Peythieu than with some members of your family, without ever having seen his face. Since 15 December 1990 and the first French broadcast on Canal+, a handful of actors have lent their voices to the whole town. A tiny team, four men and four women, for a population of several hundred residents: the French version of The Simpsons owes as much to craftsmanship as to television monument status.

This French version is not a translation, it is a rewrite. Homer's "D'oh!" became "T'oh!" because of a misreading during a screen test. Sideshow Bob is called Tahiti Bob. The Van Houten family swapped its Dutch roots for Belgian ones. Every choice has its story, and many come down to a studio anecdote told into a microphone by those who were there.

This guide reviews the actors of the family core, the one-man bands of the supporting cast, the lexicon invented by the adapters, the technical chain that turns an American episode into a French one, the voice changes imposed by life, and the other French-language dub: the one from Quebec, which speaks an entirely different language and fully embraces telling different jokes.

📋 Contents

🎬 How Springfield started speaking French 🎙️ The six voices that carry all of Springfield 🗣️ Everything the French version invented ⚙️ How a French episode is made 🕯️ When a voice falls silent ⚜️ The Quebec dub, a parallel series

AT THE ORIGINS

🎬

How Springfield started speaking French

A casting session run blind, a Mexican tape and a producer who came from Los Angeles

France as it appears in the show, home of the French version

Before becoming an institution, the French version of The Simpsons was a headache. The French production worked from rough drawings, the auditions were done on a Spanish version for want of anything better, and it would take the producers of Gracie Films coming in person for things to unblock. Here are the stages that made the version you know by heart, studio after studio.

15 December 1990

FIRST NIGHT ON CANAL+

Canal+ launches the show with "Some Enchanted Evening". A small oddity: in the United States, that episode was the last of season 1, broadcast on 13 May 1990. The French channel restored the production order, so the very first episode seen in France is the one Americans discovered last.

The complete Simpson family, reduced to a few sketches at the time of the French casting

A casting session run blind

THREE HAIRS AND A BIG BELLY

Philippe Peythieu has told the story: "The French productions had poor material for the casting, such as vague drawings of Homer with a big belly and 3 hairs." In other words, they were looking for a voice for a character nobody had really seen move yet, or heard speak.

Bumblebee Man, the star of Springfield's Spanish-language television

The audition in Spanish

THE MEXICAN TAPE

The candidates did not work from the original version but from a Mexican tape. Peythieu sums up the absurdity of the scene: "I did auditions on a Mexican version, it was absurd because that was all the material they had." And yet it was on that shaky material that the role of a lifetime was decided.

The Springfield nuclear power plant, the argument that framed Homer's performance in French

The sentence that unlocks everything

NOT A COMPLETE MORON

The producer from Gracie Films finally framed the character in a single line, reported by Peythieu: "He's not a complete moron because he works in a nuclear plant." A performance note in one sentence, which explains why the French Homer is oafish without ever being completely stupid.

The "T'oh!" from the screen test

THE ACCIDENT THAT STAYS

The most famous cry on television is said with a T throughout European French-speaking countries, and that was not planned. "The T'oh! comes from the screen test and we kept it over the years. So I was chosen on a series of T'oh!", says the man himself. An accident promoted to sonic signature.

Gracie Films makes the trip

THE DECISIVE CASTING

After auditions that led nowhere, James L. Brooks' production company sent its people over. Peythieu again: "In the end the Gracie Films producers came over and I was lucky enough to do the casting." It is that session, and no other, that gave him Homer.

Christian Dura

THE ARCHITECT OF THE FRENCH VERSION

Born in 1945 in Bordeaux, he was artistic director of the dub from 1989 to 2022, that is, seasons 1 to 34. From season 19 he also signed the French adaptation, first alternating with Régine Teyssot, then alone from season 20. Thirty-four seasons under the same direction: he is the backbone.

The Itchy & Scratchy studios, Springfield's cartoon factory

Six studios in thirty-five years

THE WALLS CHANGE, THE VOICES DON'T

PM Productions for seasons 1 to 3, L'Européenne de doublage from 4 to 6, SOFI from 7 to 19, Dubb4You for 20 and 21, Audiophase from 22 to 28, Cinéphase since season 29. The addresses go by and the providers change, but the cast barely moves at all. It is the most impressive statistic in the file.

The Coryn succession

SINCE SEASON 35

William Coryn took over as dubbing director from season 35, supported by his daughter Laetitia. A discreet handover, with no reshuffling of the cast: the historic troupe stays in place. On a show of this age, that is the best guarantee that the viewer notices absolutely nothing.

THE TROUPE

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The six voices that carry all of Springfield

Six actors, hundreds of roles, three decades in the studio

Springfield seen from above, a whole town carried by a handful of voices

You come across them everywhere without ever identifying them: in the credits of a Danny DeVito film, in a Saturday-morning cartoon, in a science-fiction blockbuster. Here are six pillars of the French version, with what they actually voice, what they invented and what is known of their method. Brace yourself: each carries far more characters than the one you associate them with.

THE VOICE OF HOMER SINCE 1990

Philippe Peythieu

also the voice of Danny DeVito

Born12 January 1950, Paris

Homer since1990

Other rolesGrampa, Otto

Born on 12 January 1950 in Paris, he came to dubbing in 1984 and landed Homer six years later, at the end of an interminable casting process. He has never let go of him since. A detail he readily acknowledges himself: the character did not find its grain straight away, it is really from the fourth season that the definitive timbre settles in.

The career

He started in dubbing in 1984, before Fox picked him for Homer in 1990. Outside Springfield, he has been Danny DeVito's regular French voice since Batman Returns in 1992, which explains that feeling of having heard him before in a 1990s film. He also regularly voices Stephen Rea, Richard Schiff and David Morse.

The characters voiced

Homer, obviously, but also Abraham "Grampa" Simpson and Otto, the school bus driver. Three generations and three registers in the same throat: the family man with the thick delivery, the rambling grandfather who wanders off on tangents, and the metalhead who lives at full volume. Three voices that sometimes answer each other in the same scene.

His trademark

The "T'oh!", born of a misreading during his screen test and never corrected since. "So I was chosen on a series of T'oh!", he sums up. The rest comes down to the work of composition: a drawling delivery, a slack articulation, a heavily projected voice that is anything but natural and takes a physical toll by the end of the day.

Worth knowing

He is today one of the faces of the fight against artificial intelligence in dubbing. His petition "Touche pas à ma VF" has passed 200,000 signatures, and he calls the paid apps that reproduce his voice without authorisation "outright theft". A short film by Arnaud Demanche, Being Homer Simpson, is also devoted to him.

MARGE, PATTY AND SELMA ALL BY HERSELF

Véronique Augereau

also the voice of Jamie Lee Curtis

Born27 May 1957, Angers

Marge since1989

Other rolesPatty, Selma, Jacqueline

Born on 27 May 1957 in Angers, trained at the Rouen conservatoire, then at the Cours Florent and the ENSATT, she has been the voice of Marge since 1989. A very French peculiarity: she handles all three Bouvier sisters on her own. When Marge argues with Patty and Selma, a single actor is therefore answering herself, on separate tracks.

The career

Theatre first, then dubbing, where she became one of the profession's most in-demand voices. She is the regular French voice of Linda Hamilton, Jamie Lee Curtis and Rene Russo, as well as Joan Allen and Marcia Gay Harden. In animation, she has voiced Lois Lane in most DC animated works since 1996.

The characters voiced

Marge Simpson, her twin sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier, and their mother Jacqueline Bouvier. In other words the whole maternal branch of the family. The rasping grain of the two smokers at the licence office against Marge's more veiled voice: the contrast rests entirely on placement work, not on any studio trickery.

His trademark

A French Marge who does not ape Julie Kavner but finds the same crack, that grating voice you would think worn out by twenty years of marital patience. And a balancing act rather rare in the profession: holding four women of the same family without the viewer's ear ever being able to confuse them.

Worth knowing

She met Philippe Peythieu on the dubbing set of The Simpsons. The couple had a child, Lou, in 1993, and married in 2001. Homer and Marge are therefore husband and wife off screen as well as on, a casting coincidence that has become the favourite anecdote of animation festivals and of every journalist who interviews them.

BART SINCE SEASON 23

Nathalie Bienaimé

second French voice of Bart

Born19 February 1968, Troyes

Bart sinceseason 23

Other rolesJimbo Jones, Lisa's singing voice

Born on 19 February 1968 in Troyes, she entered the show through the side door. Joëlle Guigui, unwell, had to give up the microphone on the last episodes of season 21: Bienaimé stood in. Guigui came back in season 22, then handed over for good for health reasons. Since season 23, Bart is her.

The career

An extremely prolific dubbing actor, and also a dubbing director, she is the regular French voice of Brenda Song and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and one of the voices of Kate Mara. In animation, she is behind Lincoln Loud in The Loud House, Betty in Atomic Betty and Mikasa Ackerman in Attack on Titan.

The characters voiced

Bart since season 23, but not only: she also voices Jimbo Jones and provides Lisa's singing voice. Taking over a character that recognisable after twenty-two seasons is a balancing act, with an audience ready to cry betrayal at the slightest slip of timbre. Nobody, or almost nobody, noticed a thing.

His trademark

Continuity, paradoxically. Her mission was not to reinvent Bart but to make him invisible. "Va te faire shampouiner" passed from one mouth to another without the show losing an ounce of its edge, which may be the finest performance in this whole file, precisely because it is designed not to be noticed.

Worth knowing

Bart is the only member of the family core whose French voice has changed in thirty-five years. Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie are carried by the same actors as in the very first episodes. Very few long-running series, animated or not, can claim comparable stability on the French side.

LISA, MAGGIE AND MILHOUSE

Aurélia Bruno

also the voice of Reese Witherspoon

Born18 February 1966, Paris

Lisa since1989

Other rolesMaggie, Milhouse

Born on 18 February 1966, present since 1989, she is one of the family-core actors who have never been replaced. She carries Lisa, little Maggie and, a detail that always surprises, Milhouse Van Houten. Bart's best friend is therefore voiced by his sister's voice, a perfectly common practice in animation and undetectable to the ear once the mix is finished.

The career

An established dubbing actor, she is regularly heard on Reese Witherspoon, notably in American Psycho and Pleasantville, as well as on Neve Campbell in the Scream saga. She joined the Simpsons team from the very first episodes and has not left the studio since, across six providers and three successive artistic directors.

The characters voiced

Lisa Simpson, Maggie Simpson and Milhouse. Three children, three temperaments: the gifted girl who argues, the baby who almost never speaks but whose every breath counts at the microphone, and the quavering, bespectacled punching bag. All three regularly meet in the same playground scene.

His trademark

A Lisa who never falls into the caricatured little-girl voice. In French, the character keeps her intellectual stiffness and her crisp delivery, which makes her outbursts and her pleas markedly more credible. It is a deliberate interpretive choice, not a technical constraint: Lisa could very easily have sounded twee.

Worth knowing

Lisa sings a lot, but not with her speaking voice. Joëlle Guigui was already dubbing the girl on certain sung scenes; the relay is today handled by Nathalie Bienaimé. Splitting the speaking and singing voices is a widespread practice in dubbing, and here it concerns one of the show's most musical characters.

THE WOMAN WITH A HUNDRED VOICES

Régine Teyssot

also adapter in season 19

Born1950

In the French versionsince 1989

Edna sinceseason 7

Born in 1950, on the show since 1989, she is the best-kept secret of the French version: most of Springfield's female voices, plus a good part of the elementary school children. When two supporting characters answer each other in a classroom scene, there is a good chance she is on both sides of the microphone.

The career

A long-standing dubbing actor, she can be heard in Amadeus, in Aliens and in Forrest Gump. In parallel she leads a second life as an author, with a series of wellbeing and cookery books published in the 2000s by Minerva and La Martinière. Dubbing, even on a cult series, does not fill a whole career.

The characters voiced

Edna Krabappel from season 7, Elizabeth Hoover, Agnes Skinner, Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, Manjula, Judge Constance Harm, but also Ralph Wiggum, Martin Prince, Nelson Muntz, Rod and Todd Flanders, and even Itchy the mouse. The playground bullies and the top of the class come literally out of the same throat.

His trademark

The art of the switch. Going from Agnes Skinner, an old harpy with a delivery as dry as a stick, to Ralph Wiggum, whose every line must sound as though it arrived by accident, demands a radically different placement. She is the one who gives Springfield its population density: without her, the town would sound frankly empty.

Worth knowing

She is not the first Edna: Martine Meirhaeghe held the role for the first six seasons. Another little-known hat: Teyssot wrote part of the French adaptation in season 19, alternating with Christian Dura, before he took the dialogue back alone from season 20.

MOE, WILLIE AND PROFESSOR FRINK

Gilbert Lévy

also Jimmy and Mackey in South Park

Born20 November 1949, Tunis

Willie sinceseason 5

Other rolesMoe, Lenny, Frink, Cletus

Born on 20 November 1949 in Tunis, he is the other pillar of the male supporting cast. His speciality: broken, twisted, hissing voices, the ones that must above all not sound like a normal human being. If a Springfield resident speaks with a defect, an accent or a verbal tic, there is a good chance he is behind it.

The career

The regular French voice of Colm Meaney, Randy Quaid and David Paymer, he also dubbed Harvey Bullock in the 1992 animated Batman series. He is above all a figure of the French version of South Park, where he voices Jimbo, Jimmy and Mr Mackey, and where he also performs the theme song.

The characters voiced

Moe Szyslak, Lenny, Groundskeeper Willie from season 5, Professor Frink and Cletus. An embittered barman, a placid plant worker, an incomprehensible Scot, a spluttering scientist and a hillbilly: five voices built from scratch, none of which resembles the other four.

His trademark

Willie. In the original version, the character is a Scot from Kirkwall, in the Orkneys: an immediate social marker for an American audience. In French, they keep the first name, translate his job as "Willie le jardinier", and build him a rolled, shouted gibberish, recognisable in three syllables.

Worth knowing

Professor Frink is a borderline case. In the original version, Hank Azaria built his diction on Julius Kelp, Jerry Lewis's character in The Nutty Professor. Matt Groening acknowledged it: the scientist only became what he is once that voice was found. Translating that makes no sense, it has to be reperformed.

THE IN-HOUSE LEXICON

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Everything the French version invented

The names, the cries and the origins that exist only in France

Bart at the blackboard: in the French version too, everything hangs on the exact word

A good adaptation does not translate, it transposes. On The Simpsons, the French dialogue writers cobbled together a whole vocabulary with no equivalent in English, recreated names from scratch and sometimes moved a character from one country to another. Some inventions have become more famous than the original. A short reasoned inventory, each time with the starting name and, where it differs, the Quebec one.

Homer's cry, which entered the English dictionaries and was renamed

"T'oh!"

THE CRY BORN OF A MISTAKE

Dan Castellaneta's "D'oh!" entered the English dictionaries. Its French version was born of a screen-test accident: Philippe Peythieu pronounced a T where there was a D, and nobody thought it worth correcting. Three decades later, it is the sonic signature of a whole generation.

"Va te faire shampouiner"

THE PERFECTLY CLEAN INSULT

In English, Bart throws out "Eat my shorts", untranslatable literally without descending into absurdity. The French version invents "Va te faire shampouiner" ("go get yourself shampooed"), which ticks every box: the length fits the lip sync, the insolence is intact, the crudeness is nil. In Quebec, the same line becomes "Mange de la crotte!".

Tahiti Bob

SIDESHOW BOB IN THE ORIGINAL

The word "sideshow", which means the side attraction at a funfair, has no short equivalent in French. Rather than an improbable "Bob de la baraque foraine", the French version chose Tahiti Bob: two syllables, an exotic image, and a delicious contrast with a Shakespearean psychopath. In Quebec, he stayed Sideshow Bob.

Bart's teacher, Krabappel in English and Krapabelle in French

Edna Krapabelle

EDNA KRABAPPEL IN THE ORIGINAL

The teacher is called Krabappel in the original version, a pun on the crab apple. The French version keeps the sound and Frenchifies it into Krapabelle, a name that catches the ear and means nothing in particular. Quebec, for its part, kept Krabappel as it is: two schools of adaptation in a single schoolteacher.

Petit Papa Noël

SANTA'S LITTLE HELPER IN THE ORIGINAL

Literally "Santa's little helper", the greyhound becomes Petit Papa Noël in French: shorter, more singable, immediately hooked to the Christmas song everyone knows. In Quebec, the same dog is called Le P'tit Renne au nez rouge. Exactly the same reflex, a different Christmas song.

Hans Taupeman

HANS MOLEMAN IN THE ORIGINAL

The English name contains "mole". The French version translates the pun while keeping the Germanic sound and gets Hans Taupeman. The principle is constant across the whole show: when the proper noun carries a joke, the joke is rebuilt in French rather than letting the original through.

Otto Bus

OTTO MANN IN THE ORIGINAL

In the original version, the driver is called Otto Mann, a sound-alike nod to "auto". The French version pushes the pun one notch further by renaming him Otto Bus, which is heard directly as "autobus". It is probably the show's most elegant Frenchification: the pun is frankly better in French than in English.

Le Palais du Gaucher

THE LEFTORIUM IN THE ORIGINAL

Ned Flanders' shop for left-handers becomes Le Palais du Gaucher in France and le Gauchariat in Quebec. One and the same shop, two opposite reflexes: one translates the idea into good French, the other builds a portmanteau word. It is by stacking up this kind of micro-decision that the two versions end up diverging completely.

Simpson Horror Show

TREEHOUSE OF HORROR IN THE ORIGINAL

"The horror treehouse" means nothing to a French audience. The French version therefore renamed the Halloween episodes Simpson Horror Show, a more explicit title that became the absolute reference for a whole generation of viewers. In Quebec, the same episodes are called Spécial d'Halloween. The first was broadcast in the United States on 25 October 1990.

Kirk Van Houten, father of a family turned Belgian in the French version

The Van Houtens turned Belgian

A PLOT RELOCATION

Milhouse's surname is Dutch, and the original version uses it as a marker. In French, the family's Dutch origin was turned into a Belgian one, with the accent to match. It is one of the rare cases where the French version does not simply change a name: it moves a character outright on the map.

Spider-Cochon

SPIDER-PIG IN THE ORIGINAL

The feature film released in 2007 gave the French version its biggest popular success: "Spider-Pig" becomes Spider-Cochon, and the little song invaded the playgrounds for months. Proof that adaptation is not played out on dialogue alone: sometimes everything hangs on two well-placed words.

IN THE STUDIO

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How a French episode is made

From detection to mixing, the complete dubbing chain

The episode where Homer steps up to the microphone to voice Poochie

Between the American episode that arrives and the French episode that goes on air, there is a chain of trades nobody knows about. It rests on a French invention: the rhythmo band, that ribbon of text scrolling under the picture that lets the actor match the lips to the hundredth of a second. Here are the stages, in the order in which they really follow one another.

Detection

THE WATCHMAKER'S WORK

The first link in the chain. The detector receives the original version and transfers onto a band the original text, but also the breaths, the laughs and the actors' reactions. Along the way they code the labial consonants, the fricatives and the vowel positions. All the quality of what follows depends on this invisible stage.

The rhythmo band

AN INVENTION FROM 1949

The rhythmographic band process was developed in 1949 at the MGM auditorium in Paris. It is that scrolling ribbon, synchronised to the picture, that sets French dubbing apart from most of its European neighbours: the actor reads their text at the exact moment they have to say it, without ever taking their eyes off the screen.

The Itchy & Scratchy writers' room, where every line is rewritten

Adaptation

FIVE DAYS PER EPISODE

The writer writes the French text directly onto that band, constrained by the detection. On The Simpsons, a single episode represents five whole days of brainstorming. Juliette Vigouroux and Alain Cassard, long in post on the show, summed the matter up like this: "This series is a concentrate of every difficulty you can meet."

A Simpsons title sequence in a foreign language: every version rebuilds its own lines

The length trap

ENGLISH IS SHORTER

The structural difficulty of dubbing into French comes down to an asymmetry between languages: English is far more compact. A line that fits into six syllables across the Atlantic demands ten here. Adapting is therefore not translating a sentence, it is building a new one that fits exactly into an imposed template.

Bart's blackboard, text laid down line after line

Calligraphy

THE SCROLLING TEXT

The approved text is transferred onto the final rhythmo band, the one that will scroll in front of the actors during the take. Every word is positioned to fall exactly at the moment the character articulates it on screen, and a vertical bar signals to the actor the starting point of their line. Zero room for improvisation.

June Bellamy, the actor who voices Itchy and Scratchy in the show

Recording in loops

WE CUT IT UP, WE START AGAIN

An episode is not dubbed in one block: the programme is cut into loops, short segments of about a minute. The actor sees the picture, reads the band, records, starts again if it does not add up. It is that division that makes the job possible and explains the precision finally achieved.

The working pace

TWO AND A HALF EPISODES A DAY

Philippe Peythieu gives the figures: "We record 2 and a half episodes a day, we spend about 3 hours per episode when everything goes well." The family core goes first; the actors holding the supporting roles come to record their lines a week later, on the same loops.

The Superstar Celebrity Microphone, the most famous microphone in Springfield

The voice holds up, or it doesn't

A TRADE OF THE BODY

The Simpsons voices are heavily projected, and therefore physically costly. Peythieu makes no secret of it: "If we partied the night before, the voice won't hold up all day." He has already had to cancel an afternoon session because his voice was no longer up to it. Dubbing is paid for in fatigue.

Mixing

THE LAST STAGE

The French voices come to replace the original voices on the international version, that track containing all the atmospheres, the sound effects and the music. Reckon on about two hours for a seasoned sound engineer. It is what allows a dubbed episode to sound like the original, apart from the actors' timbre.

A matter of composition

CHRISTIAN DURA'S WORD ON IT

Thirty-four seasons as artistic director give you the right to be categorical. The formula of the head of the French version comes down to two sentences: "Dubbing is not just a voice laid over a picture. It is genuine composition work." Everything above serves only to make that composition possible.

HANDOVERS

🕯️

When a voice falls silent

The replacements, their reasons, and how the show absorbs them

Krusty the Clown, one of the roles passed from actor to actor in the French version

Thirty-five years is longer than a career. The French version of The Simpsons has therefore had to absorb bereavements, illnesses and departures, with one constant rule: the character is never withdrawn, a new voice is found for him. The bet is risky, the audience spots everything, but it has worked rather well. Here is the chronology of the handovers.

Michel Modo

1937-2008, THE FIRST PILLAR

Whose real name was Michel Goi, a recurring gendarme opposite Louis de Funès and one half of the Grosso et Modo duo, he held a stack of major roles in the French version: Mr. Burns, Krusty, Seymour Skinner, Clancy Wiggum, Dr Hibbert, Dr Nick, Hans Taupeman, Fat Tony, Tahiti Bob. He died of cancer on 24 September 2008, aged 71.

Gérard Rinaldi

1943-2012, STEPPING IN AT SHORT NOTICE

The former singer of Les Charlots, already the voice of Goofy at Disney, joined the team in October 2008 and took over Michel Modo's block of characters: Burns, Wiggum, Krusty, Skinner, Kent Brockman. He held the post for three seasons before dying of lymphoma on 2 March 2012, aged 69. Two bereavements in three and a half years on the same roles.

Xavier Fagnon

SINCE 2012

Born in 1972, he was called in in 2012 to succeed Gérard Rinaldi and inherited the same block: Mr. Burns, Krusty, Kent Brockman, Seymour Skinner, Dr Hibbert, Chief Wiggum, Tahiti Bob and Tahiti Mel. He alone carries a large part of Springfield's male figures since season 23.

Patrick Guillemin

THE FIRST NINE SEASONS

From 1989 to 1998, he voiced Ned Flanders, Apu, Reverend Lovejoy, Waylon Smithers, Barney Gumble and Carl Carlson. He left the show after season 9 and died of a heart attack on 21 August 2011, aged 60. His departure was the first big reshuffle of the French version: half a dozen recurring characters at once.

Pierre Laurent

SINCE SEASON 10

In 1999 he took over all of Patrick Guillemin's roles: Ned Flanders, Apu, Barney, Reverend Lovejoy, Smithers, Carl, Lou and the Comic Book Guy, to which Chalmers and Duffman would be added. More than twenty-five years later, he is still in post, and the transition is today almost undetectable.

Joëlle Guigui

BART FROM SEASONS 1 TO 22

She is Bart's first French voice and held the role for twenty-two seasons. Unwell, she left the microphone to Nathalie Bienaimé on the last episodes of season 21, came back in season 22, then handed over for good for health reasons. She also handled certain sung scenes for Lisa.

Edna Krabappel, withdrawn from the show after the death of her American actor

The Edna case

WHEN THE ORIGINAL CHOOSES SILENCE

In 2013, Marcia Wallace, the teacher's original voice, died. The American writers then decided to withdraw the character rather than hand her to someone else. The farewell falls in episode 13 of season 25: Ned Flanders dreams of Edna, wakes up with a mourning band on his arm and breathes "I miss that laugh".

All of Springfield: on the French side, no resident has disappeared for want of a voice

The house doctrine

WE REASSIGN, WE DO NOT ERASE

On the French side, no Springfield resident has ever disappeared because of a bereavement. The role is reassigned, the new voice is pitched to the old one, and time is left to do its work of habituation. On a show that passed 800 episodes in February 2026, that is quite simply the only viable strategy.

THE OTHER VERSION

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The Quebec dub, a parallel series

Same episodes, another language, other jokes, other actors

The Simpsons dubbed in another language: the show exists in several versions

Every episode of The Simpsons exists in two French-language versions, recorded on either side of the Atlantic by teams that never meet. The Quebec version does not settle for a different accent: it rewrites the references and has the family speak in the working-class French of Montreal. The result is a twin series, with its own cult lines and its own audience.

Two dubs, zero coordination

SINCE THE EARLY 1990s

In Quebec, the show started on Super Écran on 15 February 1991, then moved to TQS as soon as 7 September 1991, before joining Télétoon in September 2004 from season 13. Two channels, two teams, two scripts: for one and the same gag, you get two unrelated jokes, and neither is more legitimate than the other.

Hubert Gagnon

HOMER FOR 27 SEASONS

Born on 29 September 1947, he lent his voice to Homer and to Abraham from 1991 to 2017, that is, twenty-seven seasons, before giving up the role for health reasons. He died of cancer on 7 June 2020 in Longueuil, aged 72. In Quebec, his voice is as inseparable from the character as Dan Castellaneta's is in the original version.

Thiéry Dubé

HOMER SINCE SEASON 28

Born in 1973, he took over the role in 2017 with an instruction he formulated himself: get close to the original voice without ever falling into pure imitation. Succeeding Hubert Gagnon in a province where the show is part of the television heritage is almost a public-service mission.

Béatrice Picard

1929-2025, MARGE FOR 33 SEASONS

Born on 3 July 1929 in Montreal, she voiced Marge from 1989 to January 2023, at the end of a career begun in the 1940s. She died on 9 December 2025 at the age of 96, and the news went round newsrooms well beyond Quebec. Few actors will have held the same role for so long.

Chantal Baril

MARGE SINCE SEASON 33

She took over Marge from the eleventh episode of season 33, mid-season, which almost never happens on a show of this size. She also voices Milhouse in the Quebec version: as in France, the allocation of roles follows the logic of neither age nor gender.

Johanne Léveillé

BART SINCE 1989

She has voiced Bart without interruption since the very first episodes, and also handles Marge in her sung passages. She is moreover artistic director of the show's Quebec dub, alongside her partner Benoît Rousseau. More than three decades on the same brat: it is one of the project's longest loyalties.

Lisette Dufour

LISA AND MAGGIE SINCE 1989

Born on 2 April 1949, she has carried Lisa and Maggie since the beginning. Quebecers know her above all as the voice of Pocahontas at Disney and as that of Anastasia. As in France, the Quebec family core rests on a small group of actors that has barely moved in three decades.

Benoît Rousseau

1959-2026, THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS

Co-artistic director of the Quebec version with Johanne Léveillé, he also voices Lenny, Snake, Duffman, Troy McClure, Captain McAllister, Kirk Van Houten, Eddie, Abraham, and Mr. Burns since season 30. Born on 17 August 1959, he died in Montreal on 24 April 2026, aged 66.

The family dog: Petit Papa Noël in France, Le P'tit Renne au nez rouge in Quebec

The names that change

TWO OPPOSITE LOGICS

Sideshow Bob and Edna Krabappel keep their English names in Quebec, where France invented Tahiti Bob and Edna Krapabelle. Conversely, the dog becomes Le P'tit Renne au nez rouge and the Leftorium turns into the Gauchariat. The two versions never Frenchify the same things, which is the whole flavour of the business.

The 2025 stoppage, the 2026 restart

TWO SEASONS BEHIND

In the autumn of 2025, Télétoon lost the rights to the show and could no longer cover the costs of the Quebec dub, which stopped dead after season 35. It would take until May 2026 and an agreement between Bell Média and Disney for production to resume, during the summer, with a view to broadcast on Noovo.

Frequently asked questions

We answer your questions

Who voices Homer Simpson in French?

Philippe Peythieu, since 1990. He is the author of the "T'oh!", born of a misreading at the casting: he pronounced a T where the text said a D. He also voices Abraham Simpson and Otto the bus driver.

Who are the family's French voices?

Philippe Peythieu for Homer, Véronique Augereau for Marge, Joëlle Guigui for Bart and Aurélia Bruno for Lisa. A notable fact: Philippe Peythieu and Véronique Augereau, who met on the dubbing set, are married in real life.

What did the French version invent?

Plenty of inventions absent from the original version: Homer's "T'oh!", Bart's "Va te faire shampouiner!", and Frenchified names that became cult favourites such as Tahiti Bob (Sideshow Bob in English) or Edna Krapabelle (Edna Krabappel).

Why did some voices change?

Mainly following the deaths of actors, such as Michel Modo, Gérard Rinaldi or Patrick Guillemin, who each held numerous supporting roles. The dub then had to redistribute those characters, while preserving the continuity of the main voices.

Is there another French version?

Yes: a completely separate Quebec version, with its own actors — for a long time Hubert Gagnon for Homer and Béatrice Picard for Marge — and a very locally rooted adaptation, whose references differ markedly from the French version broadcast in France.

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The Simpsons' French voice cast: everything about the dub