Turanga Morris

Turanga Morris lives and works far below New New York, among the mutants who keep the sewers running and are forbidden from ever surfacing. Gruff, watchful, and quietly protective, he turns up at the edges of Leela's life without explanation, clearly keeping something close to the chest about why he takes such an interest in her.

Futurama usually plays its background characters for gags, so it's disarming when Morris turns out to carry real feeling. David Herman gives him a rough, unshowy warmth that doesn't ask for sympathy, and the show lets his silence do the work—making one of its broadest comedies pause, briefly, for something tender and unresolved.