  David Levinson in Independence Day. |
Humberto Vélez (born March 30, 1955 in Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico), is a Mexican voice, theater, radio and television actor over 42 years of career, mainly recognized throughout Latin America for being the original voice of Homer Simpson, in the popular animated series The Simpsons.
He was married to the actress and broadcaster Cony Madera with whom he had two children, also dubbing actors Alicia Vélez and Humberto Vélez Jr..
Biography[]
He studied primary, secondary and high school at the Benavente School in Tehuacán, Puebla from 1962 to 1970; Dramatic Art, Set Construction and Theater Direction in Dayton, Ohio, USA (1972-1973), and Dramatic Art at the Andrés Soler Institute belonging to the National Association of Actors (ANDA).
He started dubbing in 1983, thanks to his friend Jesse Conde, who took him to the studios of Servicio Internacional de Sonido (Oruga), where Francisco Colmenero gave him the role of an episodic character in the animated series The Smurfs, and since then he has been working on dubbing [1].
One of his first jobs as a dubbing director was in the film "Poltergeist".
He is popularly recognized as the official voice of the character Homer Simpson. He has also taught dubbing, commercial voiceover, voice and diction in seminars and courses at different universities.
In addition to providing his popular voice with Homer Simpson, Vélez was also the first voice of Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth and Kiff Crocker in Futurama, the official voice of Winnie the Pooh since 2001, Lord Farquaad in Shrek, Fluff the cat in Stuart Little, Joshamee Gibbs in the Pirates franchise of the Caribbean, Al Bundy in Married... with Children, among many others.
He has also appeared as a guest on Alejo y Valentina playing Homer Simpson in the episode Having lunch with Carlitox.
Vélez was fired from his job as the voice of Homer Simpson along with the rest of the cast in 2005 due to a conflict between the company Grabaciones y Doblajes S.A. (today New Art) and the National Association of Actors of Mexico. Vélez did not participate between seasons 16 to 31 of The Simpsons or in the Movie, being his replacement for the voice of Homer Víctor Manuel Espinoza, aka Otto Balbuena.
Starting in season 32, Vélez would return to the character of Homer Simpson after dubbing him again in the 5-minute short film titled The Good, the Bart, and the Loki.
Throughout his artistic career he has also done film, theater and voiceover; in addition to giving conferences and dubbing workshops in Mexico and abroad. Currently, Humberto combines his work in this specialty with the aforementioned activities.