Steve Urkel actor Jaleel White began acting as a child after his preschool teacher convinced his mother he was cut out for a career in showbiz. At age three, he pulled off his screen debut, appearing in various national commercials for popular brands — from Pepsi to McDonald’s and most notably, a Jello Pudding Pops commercial with Bill Cosby. The Los Angeles, California native made his proper acting debut in 1984 as Van Van Morris in the “Ebony and Ivory” episode of CBS’ The Jeffersons. After that, he appeared in two telefilms, Silence of the Heart (1984) and Kids Don’t Tell (1985).
The American actor’s first regular role in a series was as Robert Richmond in Charlie & Co., the CBS alternative to NBC’s The Cosby Show. He went on to guest star in such television productions as The Magical World of Disney (1986), Mr. Belvedere (1987), Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987), and Cadets (1988) before becoming America’s primetime favorite nerd in ABC’s Family Matters. Jaleel White’s portrayal of Steve Urkel in the Perfect Strangers spin-off remains the major highlight of his decades-long career.
Reminiscing Jaleel White’s Portrayal of Steve Urkel In Family Matters
The Steve Urkel role was initially planned as a guest role, but Jaleel White’s unique interpretation of the character made him a regular cast member of the sitcom. In the nearly nine years the series ran on ABC and CBS, Steve Urkel developed to become the show’s favorite character and its protagonist. At the onset, Family Matters was about the Winslows, an African-American family living in Chicago, Illinois. But the introduction of White’s character in “Rachel’s First Date” (Season 1, Episode 4) changed the show’s trajectory.
Jaleel White played Urkel from age 12 to 21, embodying a stereotypical nerd behind the misadventures of the Winslow family. From the character’s costume and high-pitched voice to his catchphrases, Steve Urkel’s massive reception morphed into a pop culture phenomenon that inspired several Urkel-branded products. At the height of the character’s popularity, Jaleel White crossed over to shows like Full House and Step by Step to play Steve Urkel. His performance earned him at least five Image Awards and a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Comedian in a Television Series.
He Took A Brief Break From Acting In The 2000s
Family Matters’ cancellation in 1998 was a great relief for Jaleel White, who had grown disillusioned with the character. While his resentment stems from the belief that he had outgrown the character, the death of his friend Michelle Thomas might have contributed to his ire towards Steve Urkel at the time. Thomas starred alongside White as Myra Monkhouse in the sitcom; she died in December 1998 after battling with an aggressive and rare stomach cancer for over a year.
White’s displeasure with Steve Urkel left him eager to break free from the Family Matters’ character. He once expressed he would rather get shot in the head than play Urkel again. “If you ever see me do that character again, take me out and put a bullet in my head and put me out of my misery,” the actor told a reporter sometime in 1999. This was the year he began playing J. Calvin Frazier in UPN’s Grown Up. Based on a story written by the Urkel actor, the Grown Up role differs from Family Matters’.
However, it did little to distance Jaleel White from Steve Urkel, as it ran for only one season consisting of 22 episodes. The actor’s continued association with Family Matters and difficulty landing other roles probably inspired his decision to take a break from acting. He focused on his studies at UCLA Film School and graduated in 2001. White returned to acting in 2002 when he appeared as himself in Shawn Levy’s Big Fat Liar and voiced Gadgetmobile in Michael Maliani’s Inspector Gadget’s Last Case: Claw’s Revenge.
Jaleel White Has Come To Terms With The Family Matter Role
After years of loathing Steve Urkel and efforts to distance the Family Matters character from his career, Jaleel White has adjusted to the fact that he will always be the Urkel actor. He told VanityFair in July 2011 that his disenchantment with the character, although justifiable, was blown out of proportion. “…The fact is that I was maturing. I knew physically I had made certain sacrifices to keep that property alive that just couldn’t be made anymore,” he said.
“I wasn’t changing my hair; I was staying out of the gym. To be honest, I was retarding my own growth as a man in order to maintain the authenticity to [sic] what I thought that character should be,” added the actor. Jaleel White reprised Steve Urkel in 2019 on the “When Urkel-Bots Go Bad!” episode of Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? He also voiced the character in 2023’s Urkel Saves Santa: The Movie!
Away from those, the Urkel actor has portrayed a diverse range of characters in dozens of movies and television productions, including Fresh Off the Boat (2018 – 2020), Raven’s Home (2019 – 2020), DuckTales (2020 – 2021), Hustle (2022), and The Ms. Pat Show (2023). Jaleel White is still active as an actor but being a dad is perhaps the most important thing to him. He welcomed a daughter named Samaya White with his former partner Bridget Hardy in 2009. Check out eight things you didn’t know about the Steve Urkel actor.