Jaleel White

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Jaleel White
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Born	November 27, 1976 (age 30) Pasadena, California
Notable roles	Steve Urkel/Stefan Urquelle - Family Matters

Jaleel Ahmad White (born November 27, 1976 in Pasadena, California) is an American actor, most famous as Steve Urkel on the TV series Family Matters from 1990 to 1998.

1 Early Career
2 1997-present
3 Suicide Hoax
4 External links

[edit] Early Career

White got his start on TV commercials and guest starring roles on different shows. He was considered for a main character role on the NBC Saturday morning sitcom Saved by the Bell, but lost out to other actors. He appeared on Family Matters as simply a guest star, but received a standing ovation for his performance and the chants of "Urkel! Urkel!" by a group of college fraternity brothers who were in the studio audience. He created the role of Urkel, as he was called, by borrowing his dad's dental glasses (White's dad was a dentist), hiking up his pants, bending his knees, and talking in a high-pitched tone. He was given a full-time starring role, and soon became a favorite TV character during the run of the series.

[edit] 1997-present

By the show's final season, he was commanding $100,000 per episode. Unfortunately, White was so tightly defined around Urkel's appearance and performance that it became hard for him to get other roles after the show's run completed. White was over 6 feet tall towards the latter part of the show's run, and was disallowed from weightlifting and required to shave immediately before filming each show in order to retain a "nerdlike" appearance. He also had to keep talking in a high-pitched voice as the series moved on, which was "not easy", according to White.

Jaleel White as Steve Urkel

In 1999, a pilot for UPN called Grown Ups was based around White as a young man striking out into adulthood. The pilot featured another child actor, Soleil Moon Frye famous for her role as Punky Brewster, as the girl whom he chose as a roommate. The writing and comedy was bland and dissimilar from other sitcoms, and Frye was even removed from the series after the pilot. It cancelled after one season.

White's acting roles were not restricted to sitcoms however; he co-starred in the ensemble animated film Quest for Camelot which was released in 1998.

White graduated from South Pasadena High School in 1994 and received his bachelors degree in film from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2001.

He was also the voice of the famed video game character Sonic the Hedgehog in most of his TV shows - Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic Underground, as well as a Christmas special.

White also had a small part in the movie Big Fat Liar and was the voice of 'Martin' in Our Friend, Martin.

Most recently, White worked as a 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.-

[edit] Suicide Hoax

An Internet rumor, falsely attributed to the Associated Press, claimed in 2005 that White had killed himself, leaving a suicide note that included Urkel's catchphrase, "Did I do that?". Snopes.com and TVSquad.com report on the hoax.