Jaleel White

Jaleel Ahmad White (born November 27, 1976) is an American actor who played as Steve Urkel, Stefan Urquelle, Myrtle Mae Urkel and Cornelius Eugene Urkel in Family Matters. He is also famous for being the first American voice of famous video game lexicon Sonic the Hedgehog, having voiced him in all three American cartoons; as well as his siblings Sonia and Manic in the third, Sonic Underground. He also wrote two Family Matters episodes, Grandmama and Home Again.

He also appeared as himself in the film Big Fat Liar, where his role as Urkel is referenced and he made him a special guest as Derek from this sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1995. He reprised his role as Urkel in the animated holiday film Urkel Saves Santa: The Movie on November 21, 2023.

In the fall of 2024, he will be the host of an upcoming game show called The Flip Side. The series will challenge two teams of players to anticipate how two different groups of people feel about the same issue through a series of multiple-choice questions.

Becoming Sonic[]

Jaleel White has mentioned that not many people know of his involvement with the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons. He is quoted saying "You gotta Google me deep to know I did Sonic." But once in a while, someone would take him aside and tell him that they knew it was him and they were huge fans. He remarked that he didn't do many table readings or performances with the rest of the voice cast as his schedule on Family Matters kept him too busy.

When Jaleel White stepped into the character of Sonic, he mentions making efforts to have Sonic sound raceless. Despite being black, Jaleel White did not want Sonic to sound like a black man. He developed a unique voice for Sonic that does not represent any particular race. Sonic's voice and personality, as provided by White, stayed consistent through all three animated DiC series and the fan film.

Sonic Underground[]

In the third Sonic series to be produced by Dic, Jaleel White's talents were expanded in that he went from just playing Sonic, to also playing Sonic's two siblings, Sonia and Manic. Instead of using the same voice for all three characters, Jaleel White came up with a new unique tone and sound for each Hedgehog. Most notable is Sonia who sounds very similar to Steve Urkel (specifically during Seasons 7-9), though her laughter is a little different from Steve's and the only personality trait they share is a proficiency with computers. Manic also shows a similar proficiency with computers as well, as he hacks several Robotropolis computer systems in several episodes.

The series was cancelled at 40 episodes when it was originally commissioned for a 65-episode run, with the final episode being where Sonic and his siblings would have reunited with their mother Queen Aleena, fulfilling the Oracle's prophecy told to the queen when the children were born. Jaleel often describes SU as being the favorite out of all three of the cartoons.^[1]^[2]

Trivia[]

Height: 5'11"
He and actor George Clooney were both on TV shows with the same studio so in between filming, they would play basketball together.
He sang in his Urkel voice several times on Family Matters and five times in the Sonic cartoons before Sonic Underground.
His original catch-phrase, "Did I do that".
White appeared (with Wax Museum Urkel) in the commercial for Scion iM.
White was reunited with the 2017 Family Matters cast member along with Darius McCrary, Kellie S. Williams, Shawn Harrison, Jo Marie Payton, Reginald VeJohnson, Bryton James and Telma Hopkins, but Jaimee Foxworth, Cherie Johnson and Orlando Brown were absent and not invited for unspecified reasons.
He reprised the role of Steve Urkel and Urkel Bot in the TV series "Scooby Doo and Guess Who?"
He reprised the role of Steve Urkel who has came up with his own brand of weed titled "Its Purple" aka "Purple Urkle" he wants Snoop Dogg to try who was the spokes person for a AEW TV's Triller. As Steve and Snoop have a smoking session getting high. Steve plans to have his old high school bullies (Willie Fuffner and Curtis Williams among others) beaten at thier own game in challenging each other in a fight. Stefan Urquelle also makes an appearance meeting the security guards before entering to hang out with Steve.