18 YEARS OLD PEPPA PIG VOICE ACTOR HARLEY BIRD QUITS AFTER 13 YEARS, WAS EARNING £1,000 AN HOUR IN 2018

Amelie Bea Smith, who says taking over as the voice of Peppa Pig is a ‘dream come true’, and Harley Bird, who has voiced the character for 13 years.

Harley Bird, the teenage voice actor behind cartoon character Peppa Pig, has stepped down after 13 years in the role. Eighteen-year-old Bird, who has voiced 185 episodes of the programme and won a Bafta in 2011, said that her time on the hugely successful children’s series had been “the start of an incredible journey”, adding that her colleagues had given her “unforgettable memories”.

PEPPA PIG

The teenager from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was the third person to voice TV’s most famous anthropomorphic pig, following Lily Snowden-Fine and Cecily Bloom. She will be succeeded by nine-year-old Amelie Bea Smith, whose agent said she had been a “huge fan of the show since she was little” and that it was a “dream come true”.

Neville Astley and Mark Baker, the British animators behind the show, said they were delighted that Smith was joining the team, as well as citing the strong legacy of the previous Peppa voice actors, including Bird, whom they described as “a key part of the success of Peppa Pig”. Bird reportedly earned £1,000 an hour for her role, and also recorded songs for the Peppa Pig album, which became a viral hit after its release last July.

THE PIG FAMILY

Originally rejected by the BBC, Peppa Pig has become one of the most recognisable and lucrative children’s cartoon franchises in the world since it debuted on Channel 5 in 2004. Airing in 118 territories, the Peppa brand also garners huge sales of merchandise across the globe, notably in the US and China, with the character’s trademark pink, skewwhiff face found on merchandise from baking sets to jewellery. Last August, toy giant Hasbro purchased the Canadian company that owns the rights to the show, Entertainment One, for $3.3bn. In October, Merlin Entertainments, owner of Legoland and Alton Towers, opened a Shanghai attraction, joining an existing Texas park. There are also plans to open in New York and Beijing. Peppa Pig World in Hampshire opened in 2011.

In 2018 it was reported that Harley Bird, could be making around £1,000 an hour for the role.  

"Harley is the most successful teenage voiceover artist in Britain right now," a source stated. "She is hot property and easily earns £1,000 an hour. She’s also difficult to replace as she’s mature enough to be a great actress but still has the distinctive voice families around the world know as Peppa.”