Michelle Thomas
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Michelle Thomas (September 23, 1969 - December 22, 1998) was an African-American actress who is most known for her role as Myra Monkhouse, the girlfriend of Steve Urkel, on the long-running American sitcom Family Matters.
Thomas was born in Boston but grew up in New York City, where she attended the Montclair School of the Arts and the Broadway Dance Center. Her mother was Phynjuar Thomas, a stage performer, and her father was Dennis Thomas, a founding member of the band Kool & the Gang. Thomas appeared in a variety of television programs during the 1990s including The Cosby Show, Roseanne and The Young and the Restless (for which she won a NAACP Award for outstanding African American actress in a daytime television program). Thomas died in New York City at the age of 29 from stomach cancer. Her boyfriend, actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, was at her side.
(A different Michelle Thomas is a linguist and language teacher famous for his recorded language courses.)