"To move forward, the Simpsons will no longer have voices from non-white white actors," Fox spokesperson Les Eisner said on Friday.
In the three decades since the start of the animated sitcom, she has used white actors to play a number of non-white characters, including Harry Shearer as Dr Julius Hibbert and Hank Azaria as Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.
In January Azaria announced that he would stop making Apu heard after 30 years of playing the heavily accented Indo-American character. Azaria is not South Asian.
"All we know is that I won't be making the voice anymore, unless there is a way to get it across or something," said Azaria, blog / Industry news that reported interviewing the actor about this after a panel discussion.
The decision to remove Azaria from Apu's voice was reciprocal, the actor said, according to / Film. "We all agree," he said. "We all think it's the right thing and it's good."
Comedian Hari Kondabolu - whose 2017 documentary, "The Problem with Apu", propelled the controversy over the character into the mainstream - reacted on Twitter hoping that "The Simpsons" kept Apu and allowed "a very talented to do something interesting with him. "
"My documentary 'The problem with Apu' was not made to get rid of a dated cartoon character, but to discuss race, representation and my community (which I really like)", wrote Kondabolu. "It was also about how you can like something (like the Simpsons) while being critical about certain things (Apu)."
In his doc, Kondabolu interviewed celebrities of South Asian descent, including Aziz Ansari and Kal Penn, to discuss how characterizations like Apu can be viewed as racism.
The show reacted in an April 2018 episode to the reaction against Apu, who directs the convenience store Kwik-E-Mart in the longest prime-time scripted series on television.
In the episode, young Lisa Simpson said, "Something that started decades ago and was cheered and harmless is now politically incorrect. What can you do?" Lisa then took a look at a framed photograph of Apu with the message "Don't have a cow" written on it.
Azaria later this month told host of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" that he would be happy to retire from Apu and disagreed with the way the series treated critics .
"The idea that anyone - young or old, past or present - has been bullied or teased based on the character of Apu, it really makes me sad," said Azaria, who voiced other characters from series.
"It was certainly not my intention," he said. "I wanted to spread laughter and joy with this character, and the idea that it brought pain and suffering in any way, that it was used to marginalize people is overwhelming."
CNN's Frank Pallotta, Brian Lowry and Leah Asmelash contributed to this article.
