Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon is the wife of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and the mother of their eight children. She first appeared as a little girl in Apu's flashback in the seventh season episode "Much Apu About Nothing", in which Apu tells her that he is sorry that their arranged marriage will not happen, before getting on a plane departing for the U.S. to pursue the American Dream. Her first adult appearance is in the ninth season episode The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons. She claims that Fried Green Tomatoes is her favorite book, movie, and food. She has excellent culinary skills, demonstrated by her ability to make a wide variety of dishes using only chickpeas, lentils, and sometimes rice. She is also one of Marge's best and only friends, and they often walk their babies together.
In "The Sweetest Apu", Apu has an affair with the Squishee lady. After Homer discovers this, he and Marge confront Apu, who caves under the guilt and vows to apologize to Manjula, who sets him a number of grueling tasks in penance.
Writer Richard Appel had pitched the idea of Apu marrying years before he wrote "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" for season nine. For that episode, it took several attempts by the character designers to model Manjula because making women look appealing in Matt Groening's drawing style is hard for the animators to do. Writer David Cohen named Manjula after a friend of much of the staff. Manjula was voiced by former Saturday Night Live cast member Jan Hooks from seasons 9 to 14, by Tress MacNeille in season 15 (only one appearance) and Maggie Roswell thereafter.
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