Jaleel White

Jaleel White

Jaleel White (born November 27, 1976) is an American actor. He is most famous for his role as Steve Urkel/Stefan Urquelle on the TV series Family Matters from 1989 to 1998.

Personal

White attended Huntington Middle School in San Marino, California and part of high school at John Marshall Fundamental Secondary School in Pasadena, California. As a high school senior, White attended South Pasadena High School, but then transferred to Middlesex School in Massachusetts in 1994, where he would graduate. He received his bachelors degree in film from UCLA Film School in 2001.

During White's years at South Pasadena High School while filming Family Matters, White did a physics experiment on tape for his physics teacher, Mike Kemp. This video became well known with students at South Pasadena High School because Kemp showed it to every physics student at SPHS until he retired in 2004. When not filming, White played basketball at South Pasadena High School.

Career

White got his start on TV commercials and guest starring roles on different shows. White's acting career began at age three with Kelloggs and other commercials after his preschool teacher persuaded his reluctant parents to take him to auditions. He landed his first television role as Flip Wilson and Gladys Knight's son on the CBS series Charlie and Company. He next appeared on another CBS comedy series, The Jeffersons.

He was considered for the part of a main character on the NBC Saturday morning sitcom Saved by the Bell, but lost out to another actor.

Family Matters

Originating his most famous role, Steve Urkel, on Family Matters as an initial guest appearance, White received a standing ovation for his performance and drew approving chants from a group of college fraternity brothers who were in the studio audience. He created the role by borrowing his dad's dental glasses (his father was a dentist), hiking up his pants, bending his knees, and speaking in a high-pitched geeky tone. He was given a full-time starring role, and soon became an all time favorite TV character during the run of the series.

By the show's final season, he was commanding $100,000 per episode. Unfortunately, White was so tightly defined by his Urkel character that it became hard for him to get other roles after the show's run completed. Having played the part since he was a teenager, he was also considerably taller towards the latter part of the show's run; thus disallowed from weightlifting, and required to shave immediately before filming each show in order to retain a "nerdlike" appearance. He also had to maintain the character's high-pitched voice as the series progressed, which he declared was "not easy."

Jaleel White as Steve Urkel

Breakfast cereal During the height of Family Matter's popularity, a breakfast cereal called "Urkel-Os" was produced. It was a sweetened "O" shaped cereal with a picture of the quintessential nerd, Urkel, on the front of the box. Its production run was rather short-lived.

After Family Matters

In 1999, a pilot for UPN called Grown Ups was based around White as a young man striking out into adulthood. Additionally, he co-produced and wrote episodes for the show, in which he also starred as "J," a college graduate struggling to establish his role in life as an adult. The pilot featured another child actor, Soleil Moon Frye famous for her role as Punky Brewster, as J's roommate. The writing and comedy was bland and dissimilar from other sitcoms, and Frye was even removed from the series after the pilot. It canceled after one season.

White's acting roles were not restricted to sitcoms however; he costarred in the 1998 animated film Quest for Camelot. He was also the voice of the famed video game character Sonic the Hedgehog in most of the American TV shows - Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic Underground, as well as a Christmas special. White also had small parts in the films Big Fat Liar and Dreamgirls, and was the voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Our Friend, Martin. In 2007, he guest starred on the ABC legal drama Boston Legal, playing a law school graduate interviewing for a job at Crane, Pool and Schmidt. Denny Crane creates a media circus when he tells White's character "You don't sound black".

Currently

White's lifelong passion for basketball led him to become a contributing writer for NBA.com.

In 2006, he starred in Who Made the Potatoe Salad?, a direct-to-DVD urban romantic comedy distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Filmography

• Quest for Camelot (1998) (voice)
• Our Friend, Martin (1999) (voice)
• Big Fat Liar (2002)
• Miracle Dogs Too (2006)
• Puff, Puff, Pass (2006)
• Who Made the Potatoe Salad? (2006)
• Dreamgirls (2006)

Television work

• Silence of the Heart (1984)
• Kids Don't Tell (1985)
• Charlie & Co. (1985-1986)
• The Leftovers (1986)
• Cadets (1988) (canceled after 1 episode)
• Family Matters (1989-1998)
• Camp Cucamonga (1990)
• The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1996) (voice)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1995) (voice)
• Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1995)
• Sonic Christmas Blast (1996) (voice)
• Sonic Underground (1998-1999) (voice)
• Grown Ups (1999-2000)
• 111 Gramercy Park (2003)
• "Boston Legal" (2007)
• The Game (2007 series)

External links

• Jaleel White at IMDb
• Jaleel White's home page
• Jaleel White's NBA blog
• Website for Who Made the Potatoe Salad?
• Jaleel White false death rumor