Maggie Simpson might be the most mysterious member of the Simpsons family, and she’s best known for not speaking, though she has done it a couple of times through the series – and here are all the actors who have voiced her in some capacity. Created by Matt Groening, The Simpsons started as a series of animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman show in 1987, and after three seasons, it was developed into a half-hour prime time show and made its official debut on Fox in 1989.
The Simpsons follows the ups and downs of the title family along with those of other notable citizens from Springfield. Every member of the Simpsons family has had episodes centered on them or telling more about them, including the youngest member of the clan, Maggie Simpson. An infant who can barely walk without tripping and who is always sucking on a pacifier, Maggie is more than just the baby of the family, as she has developed a (strong) personality over the course of more than 30 seasons, and has also gained a couple of enemies – a lot for a baby that has only spoken a few times.
Maggie is best known for being the only Simpsons family member that never speaks, though she does make a lot of noises and vocalisms. However, there have been a couple of episodes where she has spoken, but only one was in the canon continuity of the series. Maggie famously said her first word in season 4’s episode “Lisa’s First Word”, where she was voiced by none other than Elizabeth Taylor, who had to record the word (“daddy”) various times as the producers weren’t totally satisfied with it. However, Maggie’s very first lines were in the first short of the series to air on The Tracey Ullman Show, titled “Good Night”, and she was voiced by Liz Georges.
Maggie has spoken in non-canon episodes, where she has been voiced by different actors. First, in “Tree House of Horror V” (specifically in the segment “Time and Punishment”), James Earl Jones lent his voice to the youngest Simpson, with the line “this is indeed a disturbing universe”. Maggie spoke again in “Tree House of Horror IX” at the end of the segment “Starship Poopers”, where she was voiced by Harry Shearer using his Kang voice (as this is the segment where Maggie was Kang’s daughter), and the line was “very well. I’ll drive! I need blood!”. Another non-canon episode outside the Halloween specials is season 20’s “Four Great Women and a Manicure”, where Maggie gave a speech thanks to the voice of Jodie Foster.
Maggie’s noises are also provided by voice actors. Her iconic sucking noise was made by Matt Groening and Gabor Csupo during the series’ run in The Tracey Ullman Show. Since then, this particular sound in the series has been archive audio from either of them. Her other non-sucking noises, such as squeals and babbling, have been done by Nancy Cartwright (who also voices Bart) and Yeardley Smith (who voices Lisa). In canon, Maggie has only spoken once in The Simpsons, but the magic of non-canon episodes is that Maggie can do whatever she wants without affecting the already confusing main continuity, and she can have more guest stars lending her their voice.
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