‘King of the Hill’: New Dale Gribble Voice Actor Speaks Out

Toby Huss will be taking over as the voice of Dale Gribble in the upcoming revival following Johnny Hardwick’s death.

June 25, 2025, 8:42pm

(Courtesy of 20th Television Animation)

The new voice actor for Dale Gribble on King of the Hill is speaking out.

While the late Johnny Hardwick was able to record a few episodes of the Hulu revival, Toby Huss has been tapped to take over.

Videos by PopCulture.com

Huss is no stranger to King of the Hill, having provided voices on the original series. But stepping in for Hardwick, who died in 2023 at 64, is a different ballgame. Via PopCulture’s sister site ComicBook.com, Huss spoke about voicing Dale during a special King of the Hill panel at ATX TV Festival and how tough it’s been following Hardwick.

“Johnny was one-of-a-kind and a wonderful fellow.” Huss shared. “I’m not trying to copy Johnny… I guess I’m trying to be Johnny. He laid down a really wonderful goofball character… he had a lot of weird heart to him, and that’s a credit to Johnny. So all I’m trying to do is hold on to his Dale-ness. We love our guy Johnny, and it’s so sad that he’s not here.”

Co-creator Mike Judge confirmed that Hardwick will be in six new episodes of the upcoming 14^th season, which premieres on Aug. 4. It’s unknown in what capacity his version of Dale will be appearing in, but it will be nice for longtime fans of the series to hear Hardwick’s voice once again before he’s officially played by someone new. It can be assumed that it will be the first six episodes, but shows do tend to shoot or record out of order depending on production, so it’s possible that fans will be hearing Huss as Dale before the six episodes are up.

Meanwhile, King of the Hill’s 14^th season marks a comeback for the animated sitcom, which initially came to an end in 2009 on Fox after 13 seasons. In Season 14, “After years working a propane job in Saudi Arabia to earn their retirement nest egg, Hank and Peggy Hill return to a changed Arlen, Texas, to reconnect with old friends Dale, Boomhauer, and Bill. Meanwhile, Bobby is living his dream as a chef in Dallas and enjoying his 20s with his former classmates Connie, Joseph, and Chane.”

It will be hard to watch King of the Hill once Toby Huss officially takes over as Dale, but it sounds like he’s taking great care in the character and making sure that fans know he’s not replacing Johnny Hardwick. Make sure to tune in to new episodes of King of the Hill premiering on Aug. 4 on Hulu.