People are really into on-demand consumption. I watch everything myself on demand.
Jaleel White
As you get older, you start to understand you have to do what you need to do.
You need fans in high places, I always tell people. I don't care how talented you are.
I wasn't a kid trying to become famous. I wasn't a part of any Disney Channel wheelhouse. I was basically a black kid whose parents put him into the business so he could go to college.
I was fortunate to work with some very powerful producers like Tom Miller and Bob Boyett.
Nobody is going to be more disinterested in your work than your own kid.
You get hate in this business growing up. When you're a young performer, you just don't get the credit for the work that you did. And it is what it is. You can't walk around with a chip on your shoulder.
We live in an age of sound bites and buzz words.
There's a bit of hazing when it comes to the youth performers and a disbelief that you're capable of handling dramatic or comedic material on an adult level.
For directors and producers, you're not going to get competent performers on your set if they didn't start at a young age and understand professionalism.
If you have to go back and spell-check the text you're about to send, you're saying too much.
I learned physical comedy to a degree that most child actors never will. I really just became a student of it - became obsessed with it, to be quite honest.
I'm not one of those kind of people that likes to beat up the past to validate the present. Certain people think that it's cool to make fun of MC Hammer. I'm like, 'Yeah, but you owned all of his records.'
I will get in my car and get a chocolate souffle at midnight, and a glass of wine, and remind myself that most of my troubles are just in my mind.
If you go to talk to Disney about anything related to Mickey Mouse, if you can even get the meeting, you're going to get 50 people in that room. That is the crown jewel of their brand, and so they protect it. And so for better or worse, the crown jewel of my legacy still remains Steve Urkel and Stefan Urquelle.
The nature of television is that it's a beast with a lot of opinions. I don't consider myself typecast any more than Neil Patrick Harris was as Doogie Howser or James Gandolifini is as Tony Soprano.
You have to be respectful of pop culture, because people interpret it in the way they want.
I've been in this business 31 years. I've never had a movie deal.
The conventions of an almighty agency tapping you for greatness and signing you up and telling you this is going to be the next big thing; that has not been my career.
Writing is still on my slate.
I took opportunities, big or small, to show that I was a constant professional. I feel like the Sam Jackson of network TV drama.
I learned to be on time because, otherwise, you could miss a major opportunity. Also, it's important to live a balanced life, stay healthy, and not waste your money on things like $8 lattes.
I love Italian food.
I like women who talk smack.
Oh, the first dish I learned to make, I think I was about 10 years old, I made my dad spaghetti and broccoli for dinner when he got home from work, and it was, like, a surprise.
Sometimes our awards process can be very political in terms of just driving personal agendas, and I think we forget.
I always connected renting a car with being an adult. If you think about it, it's the last frontier of your youth. You can join the military at 18, drink when you're 21, but you can't rent a car.
I really chose a path after 'Grown Ups' of doing different things that I hadn't tried before, and just trying to take on those challenges.
I'm very proud of what I was able to do during the '90s, when baggy pants were in and East/West rap was relevant and all these different things.
People don't necessarily identify me with doing adult things.
