Jaleel White was best known for his role as Steve Urkel on Family Matters.
Urkel was a stereotypical geek/nerd, with large, thick eyeglasses, "high-water or flooding" pants held up by suspenders, multi-colored cardigan sweaters, and a high-pitched voice. Urkel was originally a one-shot character on Family Matters, but, because of audience and ratings reactions, he became a main draw to the show. He owns a 1960's BMW Isetta, (a car given to him by one of his relatives in exchange for not visiting him).
His main interactions on the show were his love for Laura Winslow, his close friendship with Eddie and his perpetual annoyance of her father, Carl and her baby sister, Judy. Amongst the rest of the family, Harriette, Richie, Rachel, and Estelle "Mother" Winslow were more accepting and caring of Urkel. Estelle was always delighted whenever Steve comes over and calls her "Estelle, my Belle". She also considers him as her surrogate grandson and was the only one who knew how much his parents hated him. Richie has considered Urkel like an uncle to him. Harriette treats him as a surrogate son to their family and was always appreciative of him for helping out their family when they needed him.
Steve intended to go to college at MIT, but after one semester he returned to Chicago and attended (fictional) Illinois Occidental University (IOU) with Laura.
Steve's parents, Dr.and Mrs.Roberta Urkel(never made an actual appearance on the show) has never loved him in a day of his life and they went through great lengths to avoid him at all costs. Dr.Urkel was a brain surgeon and both ended up disowning him when he decided to live with the Winslows instead of going to Russia with them. The closest thing that they came to loving him, was when he was Stefan Urquelle(his alter ego) and they introduced him to his grandparents. Most of his relatives also refused to have any involvement with him and paid him a great deal of money to not visit them.
Despite that, Steve has three relatives who cares about him and his well being. His uncle Ernie, who owns a horse trailer. His cousin Myrtle, who has a love for Eddie and she was close to him like a sister and his aunt Oona(portrayed by Donna Summer) from Altoona, who was his favorite aunt and she was close to him like a mother figure. He had an uncle called Big Daddy Urkel, that had a big disagreement with Eddie. He also had problems with his other cousin in Detroit, Cornelius Eugene Urkel because he kept going by his nickname, Original Gangsta Dawg and he always asked him for money(which he refused to give him, despite knowing his problems with Fresh Squeeze and told him he can't even be in the Winslow house while he here and away). The latter was ignored when he entered the house against Steve's wishes.
Urkel also created an alter ego, named Stefan Urquelle to impress Laura. While Urkel is clumsy and unpopular with the people around him, Urquelle is popular and suave, especially with women. Steve originally made the "transformation" to Stefan to woo her, She and the other women encountered are enamored by him. He created a formula called "Cool Juice" to transform into Stefan. Even his parents was so impressed by the new him that they brought his grandparents to meet him. Originally, the effects of the transformation were only temporary; Stefan would change back into Steve after a certain amount of time (originally a week). In his first appearance, however, he was very narcissistic, cold-hearted, and shallow, which quickly turned Laura off. She decided she wanted the real Steve back because he, unlike Stefan, cared about others. He agreed and ate a tablet that reverted him back to Urkel, which made her happy.