diff --git a/litellm/utils.py b/litellm/utils.py
index 19df4fbdd0a..4c31c774a52 100644
--- a/litellm/utils.py
+++ b/litellm/utils.py
@@ -2451,7 +2451,7 @@ class CustomStreamWrapper:
 
     def __next__(self):
         try:
-            completion_obj = {"content": "", "role": "assistant"} # default to role being assistant
+            completion_obj = {"content": "", "role": ""} # default to role being assistant
             if self.model in litellm.anthropic_models:
                 chunk = next(self.completion_stream)
                 completion_obj["content"] = self.handle_anthropic_chunk(chunk)
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 2822a3bebb2..d2f57115016 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [tool.poetry]
 name = "litellm"
-version = "0.1.643"
+version = "0.1.644"
 description = "Library to easily interface with LLM API providers"
 authors = ["BerriAI"]
 license = "MIT License"