Now And Then: See How Steve Urkel Has Changed
Jaleel White Now And Then: See How Steve Urkel Has Changed Over The Years
- Jaleel White's acting career expanded beyond Family Matters, including hosting a 90s-themed home renovation show.
- Despite the ups and downs, Jaleel White remains grateful for his Urkel experience and its lasting impact on pop culture.
Few television characters have made an entrance quite like Steve Urkel. With oversized glasses, high-water pants, suspenders, a nasal voice and the unforgettable cry of “Did I do that?”, the nerdy next-door neighbor became one of the defining faces of 1990s television. Behind the suspenders was Jaleel White, a talented young actor whose unexpected success on Family Matters would shape his career and pop culture for decades. Let’s take a look at how Jaleel White has transformed over the years. Here is his now and then.
Jaleel White Now And Then: From Steve Urkel to HGTV Star.
White was already a working child actor when he joined Family Matters in 1989 at the age of 13, according to the Atlantic City Weekly. Notably, the Hollywood star revealed he had begun acting at the age of 3 during an appearance on The Breakfast Club in 2025. Steve Urkel was originally written as a one-time guest character. But audiences loved the awkward, accident-prone teenager, and White’s performance was so memorable that Urkel quickly became a central character. Eventually, the show increasingly revolved around him.
White turned Urkel into far more than a collection of nerdy mannerisms. His physical comedy was extraordinary: the stiff posture, wild facial expressions, distinctive walk and trademark laugh made Urkel instantly recognizable.
White said he knew Urkel’s role on Family Matters was “something special” when the cast filmed an episode called “The Big Fix” where he was captured taking Laura Winslow (Kellie Shanygne Williams) out on a date to a French restaurant. It was in that moment that he knew his hard work practicing on and off set had begun to kick in.
“I took Laura out to a French restaurant and I leveled that French restaurant,” White told Tamron Hall during a 2024 interview. “I knew, if I do this, they laugh this much, if I do that, they laugh that much, and that is when y’all became a joy stick for me.”
Read more about Jaleel White’s transformation from then until now, after the flip!
Jaleel White Now And Then: From Steve Urkel to HGTV Star.
As Jaleel White grew up, so did Steve Urkel, with the character navigating many of the same teenage milestones as the actor himself. White recalled on The Breakfast Club last year that he had his first kiss while filming Family Matters, an experience that was memorable for all the wrong reasons. His scene partner gave him a French kiss, leaving the young actor in tears because the experience felt strange and uncomfortable.
Fortunately, White’s parents were on set and quickly reassured him that everything was okay. The show’s supportive cast and crew also helped lighten the moment, giving him high-fives after the scene. Looking back, White can laugh about the awkward encounter, joking that he quickly realized this was apparently something he would have to get used to as he grew older.
As he put it, “It was very clear to me all the signals that I was getting was that [it] might have been yucky the way it went down, but apparently I’m going to get a lot more of that, so my machismo says, ‘Yeah, okay, all right, go with the flow.’”
That maturity transitioned into the show. Over the years, Urkel slowly transformed into his smooth alter ego, Stefan Urquelle, allowing White to demonstrate a completely different side of his acting ability. By drinking a special potion, Urkel turned into Stefan, a charming ladies’ man. He also played additional members of the Urkel family, including Steve’s cousin Myrtle Urkel.
White has said that Urkel’s comic DNA was influenced partly by performers such as Martin Short’s Ed Grimley and Pee-wee Herman, combined with his own interpretation. The character’s originality helped make him a phenomenon, with his distinctive style becoming part of the visual language of 1990s pop culture. He also studied a few other greats of the comedy world to nail the character’s unique persona.
“I put a lot of work into what I did,” he told The Atlantic City Weekly in 2012. “I did a lot of studying. I studied The Honeymooners and the relationship between [Ed] Norton and [Ralph] Kramden. I really got academic about creating [Urkel]. It kind of became my obsession.”
Family Matters ran for nine seasons, first on ABC’s famous TGIF lineup before moving to CBS for its final season. For White, those years meant growing up in front of millions of viewers while simultaneously becoming one of television’s most recognizable young stars.
But White’s story didn’t end when Urkel left the screen in 1998. He continued acting in television and film, appearing on shows including Boston Legal, House, Castle and Psych. He also competed on Dancing with the Stars and expanded into hosting.
Where is Jaleel White now?
In 2024, White published Growing Up Urkel: A Memoir, reflecting on childhood fame, Hollywood and the complicated experience of growing up alongside a character who became bigger than himself. Despite the ups and downs, White said he was forever grateful for his time on Family Matters.
“I lived experiences that, quite frankly, most people would be blown away by,” he added during his 2012 interview with The Atlantic City Weekly. “Private planes with Denzel Washington, and Michael Jordan visiting me on the set with his family, and filming in Paris. I would never take any of those experiences for granted.”
His Urkel legacy remains especially powerful because the character has never really disappeared. Syndication introduced Family Matters to generations who weren’t even born when it originally aired, while White has increasingly embraced the nostalgia surrounding the role. In 2026, he became host of HGTV’s Totally ’90s House, reconnecting with the decade that made him famous. The new HGTV home renovation series follows White as he joins some of the biggest stars of that decade on a search for homes that have been frozen in time and their mission to give them a modern-day upgrade.
Speaking to TODAY on Aug. 25, White said there were certain states in particular that had more ‘“90s-looking homes than others.”
“Pennsylvania [and] New Jersey provided a nice hunting ground. But it was really cool seeing all of these old fixtures and there’s a lot of cherry oak, those entertainment centers that were built in, a lot of brass fixtures,” he shared, before joking, “a lot of questionable carpets in the bathroom, too.”
Jaleel White may have spent nine years asking, “Did I do that?” The answer, in terms of television history, is pretty clear: yes, and he did it memorably. Steve Urkel became a cultural icon, but White’s greater legacy is the skill, energy and individuality he brought to a role that was never supposed to last more than one episode.
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