Jaleel White

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Jaleel White
Born November 27 1976 (1976-11-27) (age 33)
Pasadena, California
Years active 1987 - present

Jaleel Ahmad White (born November 27, 1976 in Pasadena, California), 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.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.He also made an appearence on Full House as one of D.J.s' friends cousin.

[edit] 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."
Image:2005 0308 urkel.jpg
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.

[edit] 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 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 was cancelled 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". He also appeared on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Ashley's boyfriend in one episode, and also UPN's Half & Half as a date of young Mona who left her at the end of the episode for a waitress. That waitress was a guest star named Keenyah who placed third on cycle 4 of America's Next Top Model.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television work

[edit] References

Jaleel White ..... episode ....Not with My Cousin You Don't (1995 fresh prince of bel air

[edit] External links

es:Jaleel White fr:Jaleel White he:ג'ליל וייט simple:Jaleel White sv:Jaleel White

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