Matt Groening has been the star of adult animation, and with Futurama, the creator has been at the forefront of two of the longest-running shows in the genre. The sci-fi comedy will debut its 14th season in August and is among the most anticipated animated shows of 2026. Most of the cast will be returning to the show.
As with every era of the show since 1999, the season brings back its original ensemble of voice actors, several of whom perform multiple roles simultaneously. The series remains a rare case in American animation in which the entire founding cast has remained intact across networks, cancellations, and revivals.
Here’s who voices whom, character by character.
1. Philip J. Fry – Billy West
Billy West originated the protagonist of Futurama, Philip J. Fry, the pizza delivery boy who is cryogenically frozen in 1999 and is later thawed back to life in the 31st century. Fry is a good-hearted, innocent bystander to everything that happens in the series, and he begins work as a cargo delivery guy for Planet Express. His love for Leela is a recurring theme.
West has voiced Fry in every episode since the 1999 pilot, giving the character his nasally, everyman Brooklyn-inflected delivery. Before Futurama, West was already an animation legend; he was a veteran of Nickelodeon’s Ren & Stimpy (voicing Stimpy, and later taking over Ren), and had already voiced Bugs Bunny in 1996’s Space Jam before taking on Woody Woodpecker in 1999.
2. Bender Bending Rodriguez – John DiMaggio
John DiMaggio voices the show’s unmistakable heart, Bender Bending Rodriguez. The irreverent, amoral, cigar-smoking robot is the star of the show and carries much of the comedy. His iconic character design and DiMaggio’s voice performance have made Bender a pop cultural icon.
DiMaggio built Bender’s growling, wise-guy voice around his own stand-up comedy background, and the character’s catchphrases have become some of the most quoted lines in adult animation.
DiMaggio famously held out during pay negotiations for the 2023 Hulu revival in a dispute fans dubbed ‘Bendergate,’ ultimately returning after a resolution was reached.
3. Turanga Leela – Katey Sagal
Turanga Leela is Futurama’s moral center. As the captain of the Planet Express delivery ship, Leela is the voice of reason and the woman of Phil’s dreams. She is known for her distinct character design, having one eye and an iconic hairstyle.
Katey Sagal has voiced the character since 1999. Sagal, already a massive television star at the time for playing Peggy Bundy on Married… with Children (for which she earned four Golden Globe nominations before eventually winning one for Sons of Anarchy), brought a huskier, more grounded register to Leela that set her apart from the show’s more cartoonish voices.
4. Hermes Conrad – Phil LaMarr
Phil LaMarr voices Hermes Conrad, the excitable, by-the-book Jamaican bureaucrat who serves as Planet Express’s rigidly procedural office manager. Hermes is defined by his obsession with paperwork, red tape, and his past glory as a champion limbo dancer, a background gag that recurs throughout the series.
LaMarr, a Mad TV alum widely known for voicing Samurai Jack, Static in Static Shock, and John Stewart/Green Lantern in the DC animated universe, gives Hermes a clipped, rhythmic delivery built around a stylized Jamaican-inflected accent.
5. Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth – Billy West
Billy West takes on many roles in Futurama, another one of which is Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, the owner of Planet Express and Phil’s relative. Professor Farnsworth has a distinct, raspy, and quivering voice, like a bumbling mad scientist, and his obliviousness is brought out perfectly by West, who also voices Phil.
West famously modeled the Professor’s distinct, shaky vocal patterns on a combination of actors Lou Jacobi and Burgess Meredith. The Professor’s running gags include narcolepsy, casual cruelty toward his employees, and a two-hundred-year lifespan sustained by an untested youthing serum.
6. Amy Wong – Lauren Tom
Lauren Tom voices Amy Wong, the wealthy, klutzy Martian-born engineering student who works as a Planet Express intern before eventually becoming a licensed doctor of both engineering and medicine. Amy is characterized by an exaggerated Valley-girl cadence layered over a genuinely brilliant technical mind, a contrast Tom uses for much of the character’s comedy.
Tom, who also played Ross’s girlfriend Julie on Friends and voiced characters in King of the Hill, brings a distinct bubbly energy to the Planet Express cast that stands apart from the show’s more sardonic principal voices.
7. Dr. John A. Zoidberg – Billy West
Billy West also voices Dr. John A. Zoidberg, the incompetent physician of Planet Express. He has a lobster-like design, is an alien, and is characterized by his fumbling and terrible medical knowledge. His personal life is in a constant state of pity.
Zoidberg’s voice is built on wet, clicking mouth noises and a mangled immigrant-inflected cadence that West developed to sound alien without being unintelligible. Season 14’s marketing has specifically teased ‘the return of Dr. Zoidberg’s long-lost love,’ giving the character an unusually prominent arc this year after decades as mostly comic relief.
8. Scruffy – David Herman
David Herman voices Scruffy, the perpetually unmotivated, mop-wielding janitor of the Planet Express building, whose entire characterization revolves around apathy and a refusal to explain himself.
Scruffy is largely a background gag character, appearing briefly across episodes to deliver a single deadpan line before vanishing again, and the joke’s longevity comes from how little the show ever reveals about him. He has become a cult favorite among the fandom.
Herman, an original MADtv cast member widely known for his live-action role in Office Space and his extensive voice work on King of the Hill and Bob’s Burgers, keeps Scruffy’s delivery flat and gravelly, treating even the strangest sci-fi interruptions to his mopping duties with total indifference.
9. Kif Kroker – Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche voices Kif Kroker in Futurama. LaMarche gives the character an exasperated and perpetually tired groan of a tone as he deals with Zapp Brannigan’s shenanigans as the captain’s First Lieutenant.
LaMarche, a veteran voice actor best known for voicing Brain in Pinky and the Brain and for his Orson Welles-inflected work across numerous animated productions, gives Kif a gentler, more restrained register than most of the show’s louder comic voices.
10. Zapp Brannigan – Billy West
Rounding out West’s principal roles is Zapp Brannigan, the pompous, incompetent captain of the Democratic Order of Planets’ Nimbus starship, whose bravado masks near-total military and romantic failure. Brannigan is a parody of blustering, self-mythologizing leading-man archetypes, modeled loosely on figures like William Shatner’s Captain Kirk.
The role was originally written for comedy legend Phil Hartman. Following Hartman’s tragic death before production began, West took over the role, giving Zapp a theatrical, overly formal radio-announcer delivery as a direct tribute to Hartman. The character’s dynamic with Leela, the object of his unwanted affection, and with his long-suffering aide Kif Kroker, has been a recurring satirical engine of the show.
| Futurama Character | Actor Name |
| Philip J. Fry | Billy West |
| Bender Bending Rodriguez | John DiMaggio |
| Turanga Leela | Katey Sagal |
| Hermes Conrad | Phil LaMarr |
| Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth | Billy West |
| Amy Wong | Lauren Tom |
| Dr. John A. Zoidberg | Billy West |
| Scruffy | David Herman |
| Kif Kroker | Maurice LaMarche |
| Zapp Brannigan | Billy West |
Are you excited to watch Futurama season 14? Comment below.
Futurama is available to stream on Hulu.
