Actor Jaleel White Reveals He Suffered From Voice Damage While Playing Steve Urkel On ‘Family Matters’

Actor Jaleel White Reveals He Suffered From Voice Damage While Playing Steve Urkel On ‘Family Matters’

Jaleel White’s journey as Steve Urkel came with an unexpected cost.

Speaking at 90s Con 2024, the 47-year-old actor revealed that playing the iconic character on Family Matters left his voice damaged for years.

Jaleel White

The actor revealed that maintaining Steve Urkel’s high-pitched, nasal tone during his teenage years caused lasting damage to his vocal cords, stating:

“I spoke to a doctor, and what happened is during puberty I spoke at the same pitch for extended periods of time. If the pitch had been going all over the place I wouldn’t have damaged it quite as much.”

While the damage affected him during his time on the show, Jaleel White assured the audience that his voice has since recovered:

“It’s been in remission and I’m fine now, but I felt like I was really losing it. I would constantly get network notes like, ‘We can’t hear him. Please be more clear.’ It was kind of a scary thing for me to go through.”

Despite the challenges, Jaleel White, who starred as Urkel from 1989 to 1998, said he has no regrets:

“I wouldn’t do anything differently. It was a great experience and it was a small sacrifice to make for one hell of a legacy.”

Jaleel White, Reginald VelJohnson (Family Matters)

This isn’t the first time Jaleel White has opened up about the challenges he faced on Family Matters. In a 2021 episode of TV One’s Uncensored, White revealed that he was “not welcomed to the cast at all” as his character, Steve Urkel, quickly gained prominence:

“It was supposed to only be a guest spot, one and done.”

He added that he was “caught off-guard” by Urkel’s massive popularity and the rapid success of the character made his early experience on the show more difficult than expected.

Although his start on the show was challenging, Steve Urkel emerged as one of TV’s most iconic characters, with Jaleel White even reprising the role in the 2023 animated film Urkel Saves Santa.

Do you remember Urkel’s iconic voice? Share your thoughts below!