While she’s not quite the best character in the show — that title would probably go to Stewie or Brian — I’d argue that Meg Griffin is the most underrated character on Family Guy. Everyone in the show hates her, and they act as though everyone in the audience does, too. When it becomes clear that an episode is heading into a Meg-centric storyline, Peter offers the clicker to the audience and says no one would blame them if they changed the channel.
But I love Meg, and I love her storylines. She’s easy to root for, because she’s an underdog. Everyone is rooting against her, so she has to fight tooth and nail for everything she gets, and that’s inspiring to see. Family Guy doesn’t always stick the landing when it’s trying to show the tragic side of Meg’s life — that one episode where she resolves to let the family keep abusing her so they can release their pent-up anger is unbelievably toxic — but Mila Kunis’ delightfully natural performance always captures Meg’s humanity.
Kunis has been inextricably tied to the role of Meg Griffin for the past two-and-a-half decades — whether she’s in a situationship with Justin Timberlake or competing on the ballet scene with Natalie Portman or helping Benoit Blanc solve his latest case, she’s always the voice of Meg Griffin — but she’s not the only voice actor who’s played Meg. Kunis wasn’t the first choice to play Meg, and she wasn’t even the first person cast in the role.
Before Kunis was cast, there was an unaired pilot, a casting search, a full season of the show, an actor who dropped out, and another casting search. And even after Kunis was cast, one more voice actor came in to help bring Meg to life. So, let’s take a look at all five voice actors who have played Meg in Family Guy.
Rachael MacFarlane (Unaired Pilot)
The first ever voice actor to play Meg Griffin in any version of Family Guy was Seth MacFarlane’s own younger sister, Rachael MacFarlane. Rachael has appeared in a number of her brother’s projects — most notably playing Stan Smith’s hippie daughter Hayley in American Dad! — but she’s also carved out a fascinating career for herself, voicing characters in StarCraft II and Codename: Kids Next Door and serving as a production manager on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.
Rachael MacFarlane was an incidental cast member on Family Guy for a few years, popping up as random voices in the background and one-off roles in cutaway gags, but she was almost a member of the main cast. She voiced Meg in the unaired pilot episode that Seth created in order to pitch Family Guy around town. Once the show was picked up by Fox, it was decided that Meg would be recast.
Cree Summer (Rumored)
On the season 1 DVD commentary for Drawn Together season 1, episode 1, “Hot Tub,” Cree Summer claims she was offered the role of Meg on Family Guy, but was ultimately rejected by the producers. This claim is unsubstantiated, but Summer is an extremely prolific voice actor, so it would make sense for the creators of a new animated series to offer her a role.
She’s voiced characters in SpongeBob, Adventure Time, and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Summer has some impressive on-screen credits, too, with recurring roles in Abbott Elementary and Ironheart.
Lacey Chabert (Uncredited)
In Family Guy’s first season, way back in 1999, Meg was voiced by an uncredited Lacey Chabert. Today, Chabert is best known as Gretchen from Mean Girls, Gwen Stacy from The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Kaycee from Bratz, and she’s even been crowned the “Queen of Hallmark Christmas Movies.” She would’ve made a fine permanent Meg, but Chabert dropped out of the role after season 1 due to her busy school schedule and her contractual commitment to her then-still-ongoing role as Claudia Salinger in Party of Five.
Some of Chabert’s voice work can still be heard in season 2, because a handful of episodes produced for season 1 ended up being released in season 2. Since Family Guy has a penchant for breaking the fourth wall, the show has often drawn attention to the fact that Meg’s voice changed between seasons 1 and 2. In the season 10 episode “Back to the Pilot,” when Brian and Stewie traveled back in time to the events of the pilot episode, Meg is voiced by archival recordings of Chabert from the actual pilot episode.
In season 11’s “Yug Ylimaf,” when Stewie accidentally reversed the flow of time, he pointed out that they’d gone so far back that Meg’s voice had reverted back to Lacey Chabert. For this episode, Chabert actually came back for a cameo appearance and recorded her first new lines as Meg Griffin in a decade.
Mila Kunis
After Chabert departed from the cast, Family Guy’s producers had to find someone else to voice Meg on a more permanent basis, and they searched high and low for the right actor to take on this role. Following an extensive process of auditions and callbacks, the role finally went to Mila Kunis, and Kunis has been playing Meg ever since. Kunis’ voice could first be heard in season 2, episode 3, “Da Boom,” the iconic Y2K what-if episode.
At the time, Kunis was already a renowned sitcom star, thanks to her role as Jackie Burkhart on That ‘70s Show, but Family Guy introduced her to a global audience, and set her up for a thriving movie career. After stepping out of Meg’s shadow, Kunis starred in everything from the hit comedy franchise Bad Moms to the Oscar-winning psychological thriller Black Swan. Kunis even starred in MacFarlane’s feature directorial debut, Ted, as Mark Wahlberg’s love interest (and a hilarious deadpan foil for the titular talking teddy bear).
There’s a famous but unproven claim that often gets floated around that Family Guy’s writing staff turned Meg into the Griffin family’s punching bag because they didn’t know how to write a teenage girl. Whether it’s true or not, it certainly seems like that’s the case. But Kunis elevated that one-note role into something surprisingly human. She captured the tragedy at the heart of Meg’s character, and really made us feel bad for her. She brought a spirited tenacity to Meg as she rolled with the punches, bided her time, and picked her moments to stand up for herself. Kunis brought a warmth and a naturalism to Meg that made her a much more interesting character.
Tara Strong (Singing)
Kunis is the voice most associated with Meg, but there was still one more voice actor who came in to put their stamp on the character. In season 4, episode 4, “Don’t Make Me Over,” Meg gets a makeover at the mall and becomes America’s next big popstar as she tours the country with her family band. Kunis still voices Meg in that episode, but her singing voice is provided by Tara Strong.
Strong is one of the most prolific voice actors out there. You’ve heard her as Raven in Teen Titans, Timmy Turner in The Fairly OddParents, Ben Tennyson in Ben 10, and Miss Minutes in Loki. You’ve even heard her as a bunch of other voices in Family Guy, including Amy Grant, Anna Paquin, Gandhi, the Olsen twins, and Stewie’s acting-class rival Janet.
Family Guy
8/10
- Release Date
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January 31, 1999
- Network
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FOX
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Seth MacFarlane
Peter Griffin / Brian Griffin / Stewie Griffin / Glenn Quagmire / Tom Tucker (voice)
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Alex Borstein
Lois Griffin / Tricia Takanawa / Loretta Brown / Barbara Pewterschmidt (voice)
