In some ways, Steve Urkel—the hyper-irritating nerd from beloved ’90s sitcom Family Matters—is a secret style icon, maybe even a prophet. On the show, in between terrorizing the Winslow family, dropping his classic one-liner ("Did I do thaaat?"), and walking like a praying mantis, he rebelled against a scourge of ill-fitting, murky-colored ’90s clothes. With gawky pride, he modeled flood pants, saddle shoes, cardigans, suspenders, rolled-up jeans, and huge tortoiseshell rims, as well as argyle, striped, and checked shirts. Flip through the pages of GQ, and you’ll find Urkelian descendants. The ’90s are resurging with nostalgic fury, so it makes sense that the actor who played Urkel, now-34-year-old Jaleel White, would turn up somehow. And he has—in a Cee Lo music video, no less. Starring as the singer himself, White lip-syncs "Cry Baby" while dancing alongside a ’50s-inflected cast of sharp dressers. Meanwhile, he reps the modernized Urkel look, but grooves with the unstoppable swag of his character’s alter-ego, Stefan Arkel. Still buzzed off a viral high from the clip—it’s garnered more than a million views in two weeks—White chatted with GQ about his dapper music video, the prevalence of Urkel style, and his inventible clothing collaboration.
**GQ: You have some kickass summer style in the new Cee Lo video—the light gray cardigan, plaid tie and pants, a pair of classic Converses—all smart choices. **
Jaleel White: It’s brought on so much stuff now! We’re even in talks for a clothing line. [laughs] It’s crazy, man, seriously. Jerry Leigh Apparel out in California reached out to us after the video. The name of the line is going to be Stefan—it’ll fuse the two looks of the characters I played [on _Family Matters, _Urkel and his alter-ego Stefan), so it’ll be retro-chic. Man, you know, it’s better to be lucky than good, that’s what I always tell people. At the end of the day, you want to be good, but you do need lightning in a bottle.
**GQ: So how did you end up wearing that outfit? **
Jaleel White: It’s funny, I could’ve gone in any direction or done three different outfits, but my director Mickey [Finnegan] asked me a straight, "What do you want?" And I said, "Well, out of everything you’ve got here, these pants are hot. Let’s just build around these pants."
GQ: They are killer pants. You mentioned the clothing line so casually—any other details?
Jaleel White: It’s going to be an ode to Stefan. When people see the video, they think I’m being Stefan. You have to be respectful of pop culture, because people interpret it in the way they want. There was no intention on Mickey’s behalf to have my character pay tribute to Stefan. It was an ode to the ’50s and about breaking up with a girl. He was like, "I want this to be the happiest break-up song of all time." So the line is going to pay respect to the ’50s, and more importantly, the casual geek-chic that’s going on right now, but keeping it cool—that’s where Stefan comes in.
**GQ: We know Stefan is the product of Urkel’s Nutty Professor-like experiment, but what were his origins behind the scenes? **
Jaleel White: I got to be honest, be genuine with you. When they asked me to play Stefan, I didn’t want to! I was a kid—16 years old—and as far as being in touch with "swag" or "cool," I wasn’t. I cared about basketball and knew how to hit the beat of the joke. I asked the ecutive producer why they were doing this character and he was like, "Look, the audience will love it. They need to see a closer side of you." To me, it was boring, because people didn’t understand the change, the metamorphosis, I went through as Steve [Urkel]. As Stefan, I basically played Jaleel and just cranked up the cheesy factor. But when I first walked through the door in that iconic white suit, to this day, I’ve never heard a scream like that. At that point, nobody knew the Babyface song [that played during the scene] and that the white suit would become as iconic as it is.
**GQ: Yes! It’s an incredible scene. **
Jaleel White: So I talked to Jerry Leigh about it and we agreed we got to have that white suit, that staple suit, ’cause that’s the look everyone remembers. When I hit the door, that’s when the ham in me comes out, I was like, "Are you serious?!" I thought he was boring at first, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. He is equally as iconic as the Steve character. And the fact of the matter is, we didn’t even do 20 episodes with him. That’s kind of amazing when you think about it.
GQ: Now with Urkel, what did you think of the clothes he wore?
Jaleel White: I didn’t think anything of it. To me, what was cool, man, was just to be a good actor. It was a different time period back then. We didn’t have the Internet to the degree we have it now—I got bos of fan mail, you know? I owe all of this that’s happening right now to our costumer at the time, a guy named Palmer Brown, may he rest in peace. He passed away from AIDS towards the end of our run. But Palmer was a genius. I miss him like family. The thing I brought to the character were the glasses and, after that, Palmer just ran with it, with the flood pants and everything. Between seasons one and three, he really streamlined the look. The patterns became crisper with cords, but the saddle shoes were there from day one and so were the striped shirts and suspenders. All the credit goes to him being a costumer that got passionate about a character. And that’s all it was to me: a character. Off set, I was wearing Nike jumpsuits and Jordans, like an L.A. kid, born and raised.
**GQ: See, but if you had continued the Urkel look, you would’ve been awesome. I mean, Kanye West has dressed like Urkel. **
Jaleel White: Yeah! That’s what the line came out of, that geek-chic thing. I’m flattered and I’m going have a ball with it.
**GQ: Why do you think Urkel’s look has lived on? Lose the high-rise jeans and change the color from Dad Jean to indigo, and Urkel would fit in today. **
Jaleel White: Exactly! Do you want to be on the design team? [laughs] You’re absolutely right. Life is cyclical, and I think what both characters prove is that anyone can be turned cool, anyone. It just takes a little tweaking of the style, that’s it. Lower the pants, add a little flair to the shirt collar, and it’s like, "Wait a minute! The same guy we’re regarding as a nerd is suddenly cool." Also, I love clothes that are classic and have accents—that’s my personal style, and I want to add it [to the line] as well.
**GQ: Even Urkel’s haircut is coming back now—shaved on the sides, long on the top. **
Jaleel White: Yeah, that’s hilarious. I’m not going back to that. People didn’t realize how much I really worked to keep that cut. I knew that the character was associated with the haircut, so by the time I was 17 or 18 and going to Martha’s Vineyard for the summer, I was like, "Shit, man, I have to grow my hair longer so I can get that cut!"
GQ: When did you realize that people are dressing kind of like Urkel?
Jaleel White: It obviously started with Kanye. But at least for me, I got a lot of text messages from friend’s during SportsCenter’s press conferences. First it’s Amar’e Stoudemire’s style, then it’s Carmelo Anthony’s. Kanye definitely hit biggest—the comparisons were drawn. Again, you never know with pop stars. They’ll always say it’s their own style, but I’ve been name-checked by that guy in enough of his songs to say that I might’ve been an influence.
**GQ: Seriously. On "Dark Fantasy": "Too many Urkels on your team / That’s why your wins low." **
Jaleel White: He name-checked me again on his new album, though!
**Yes! On Watch the Throne, he says, "Ya’ll Steve Urkel / I’m Oprah’s Circle." **
Jaleel White: People are always like, "Do you take offense to that?" And I’m like, "Hell no! I’m flattered. He ain’t talking about Jaleel." But the best name-check I ever got from a rapper was from Drake. He name-checks the hell out of me. Shit, I forgot what he said about me, man. It was just so dope. Let me see if I have it in my computer now. Um...what the heck does he say? Drizzy Drake... Here we go, on the song "Closer": "I get a dessert plate / Y’all eat Pedigree as ya meal / I’ve been Urkel for some years / It’s better bein’ Jaleel." That’s what he said! It’s my favorite.
**GQ: I can see why—it’s a little more heartfelt than Kanye. **
Jaleel White: Kanye isn’t a big fan of the Winslow family. [laughs]
**GQ: Really, Kanye’s just trashing his own style icon. **
Jaleel White: Yeah, but I don’t look too deep into Kanye’s meaning; I think he gets too deep for himself sometimes. I think maybe the things he says just work with the flow of where he’s trying to get to, and then he just leaves it for interpretation.
**GQ: Going back to your role as Cee Lo in the video, it’s interesting that he’s not in it. In a way, though, you’re sort of what I would prefer Cee Lo to look like. **
Jaleel White: Haha! You have to say that, I can’t say that. I’m a big Cee Lo fan, man. That’s a flattering remark, that’s hilarious. A lot of people say they must’ve got me to do the video because he didn’t want to do the dance moves.
GQ: Why did your director Mickey Finnegan call you to do the video, anyway?
Jaleel White: I mean, it definitely makes sense as far as his body of work. He helped direct the "TGIF" video with Katy Perry. Again, I think one of the things that people have forgotten is that life is cyclical. It’s going on with me right now, and I’m so grateful. A lot of people making decisions now grew up with me and like the nostalgia I provide. And as soon as I knew he made that Katy Perry video, it made sense: It was exciting to pull from his childhood and update it. And I’m rollin’ with it. I just did an episode of House and flew up to Vancouver to do an episode of Psych. I’m running into a lot more people, age-wise, who grew up enjoying Family Matters, and they want to take it apart and see what they can use now.
**GQ: Right, the ’90s are really having a moment. **
Jaleel White: You need fans in high places, I always tell people. I don’t care how talented you are. I always tell people that.
**GQ: So in the way the clothes have returned, you’re starting to as well. **
Jaleel White: Oh, yeah, it’s awesome, man, I’m enjoying the ride. It’s just funny how something can come back, but really morph. Stefan’s white suit was for the ’90s; obviously, we’d taper it so it wouldn’t be nearly as baggy and flowing. It’s going to be the same iconic image, just, you know...tweaked!