Jaleel White Quotes

My dad's a lighting director. Growing up in Hollywood, I was around the entertainment industry all the time. I knew I'd end up in show business in some capacity, eventually.

When I was seven, I was allowed to be an extra in 'Parenthood,' which was amazing. But then I kind of got addicted to it, and my parents didn't want me to want to act. They felt that would be putting your kid in an adult world.

My brother, Chris Massey from 'Zoey 101', was acting first at a young age. I just followed in my sibling's footsteps.

No one in my family is in entertainment. They thought acting was a fun hobby, and when I got a degree, I'd settle down.

My parents always encouraged us to get an education and establish a profession. However, my brothers and I grew up with considerable freedom, whether it was saving or spending our tips from the restaurant or our career choices.

I didn't really start doing stuff until I was 8 or so, but I was an extra in a bunch of different movies, and I just really took to it and really enjoyed it. I kind of bugged my parents to give L.A. a shot, and they were just super-supportive.

I decided in my late teens that I wanted to be an actor, and my dad and I agreed that films were better. I work alongside my dad, you see. I've thought that films were better since I was a kid.

My brother Robert wanted to act from a very early age, and there was always a part of me that said we couldn't have two actors in the family because our parents would go mental. So I became a runner for the Robert Stigwood Organisation and, one way or another, worked my way up to movie publicist.

I would have gone to law school, or gotten a psychology degree. I wasn't interested in sleeping on a futon forever. And what happened is I walked into auditions, and I had nothing to lose, because I had a backup plan.

The theater is a kind of international language, and I like it. But I have a practical bent of mind, too. In any other field, I could make only about a tenth as much as I do acting. That's why I want to be a producer. It pays better, and you have more control.

Both of my parents graduated from high school, both attended college, both have government jobs now. They've always been very adamant about me finishing high school and finishing college.

I didn't grow up as child actor.

My dad was an actor, so he would try and put me off and say, 'Come on, you've got to go to university first.'

When I started acting, I didn't think of it as a career. I always thought Hollywood was this magical world where a fairy came down and said, 'Come live with the Munchkins; you are now one of us.' I didn't understand the concept of it as a career. I thought I would save up enough money to go to college.

I loved movies and watched a lot of them. But my father insisted that I get a good education before I joined the film industry.

I'm not an engineer. I did not study engineering in school. But I was a super ambitious student growing up.

I told my mom for years that I wanted to be a manicurist, and she'd always be like, 'But what if you went to college and you got a degree?' She'd try to explain how I could actually do a thing that would make me a ton of money, or that I didn't have to just pick the business that was closest to our house.

When I graduated from high school, my mom and dad were saying I needed to go to college, but I said I wanted to pursue my dream of acting. At the end of my high school career, they quit their jobs, and we moved out to California on a leap of faith.

My mom, she wanted me to go to college and then after that you could do what you want.

I grew up in a really small town in Georgia, so the idea of knowing people who are actors or who are just involved in the Hollywood and movie scenes, that's far beyond anything I ever thought would happen in my life.

My parents were the good parents that said, 'You should try and get a good job and go to college and get an education.'

My parents supported me through university, and after I graduated, I got a job as an analyst at a price comparison website called TotallyMoney.com.

I was very lucky: a lot of people go through the college system not knowing what they want to do. Thankfully my parents were very supportive of my choices and pretty much gave me free reign.

I started when I was four because I had asked my parents, I begged them, 'Can I do acting? I really want to do this!' and they let me do it, so that's pretty much how I got started.

I went to NYU, and my parents had a rule that I needed to major in something other than acting if I wanted to pursue acting after college.