So I decided to ask Kel Mitchell directly. He spoke to me on the phone from Los Angeles, where he lives.

When Kenan & Kel ended in 2000, Mitchell explains, “I was currently shooting films and guest starring on television. The plan was to continue doing that.”

But when Mitchell and Thompson both tried out for Saturday Night Live in 2003, the latter won the coveted position. In the decade since, Mitchell told me, he has kept himself busy writing for, acting in, and directing the occasional film (Mitchell directed 2012’s She Is Not My Sister, a film about dealing with bullying through faith, and he takes the film around to schools and churches throughout the country) while focusing on his Christianity and raising a family.

The suggestion that Mitchell and his former Kenan & Kel costar do not remain in touch was never confirmed, but it's worth mentioning that Mitchell's publicist requested that I not ask questions about the relationship between Thompson and Mitchell. Yet Mitchell, recently married, expressed no negative sentiment towards his former costar and revels in the attention he still gets for his ’90s sitcom.

“It’s one of those things where I don’t get upset about it,” Mitchell said of the persistent attention from Kenan & Kel fans. “You have actors that get upset about their past projects being brought up. But I have to realize that [Kenan & Kel] was a staple for a lot of people. … Even though Will Smith has done I Am Legend and all these other great films, [and has] been nominated for many awards, you still love him for Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

Despite the massive differences between his own career trajectory and Thompson's, Mitchell makes a valid point: His orange-soda-gulping, lovable nimrod character is an integral part of his body of work and an inseparable part of his life. Even his son Lyric, now 14, used to act out scenes from the show, one of which involved him leaping into the family’s kitchen garbage can. And Mitchell’s mother drops specific lines from his work.

"My family, they love the sketch comedy like on All That. My mom loves Coach Kreeton,” Mitchell said. “She’s always quoting Coach Kreeton."

In conversation, Mitchell hardly goes a sentence without referencing his family. When he first heard of his own death rumor seven years ago, it was his family he thought of first: Mitchell had to explain to concerned distant relatives that he was still living, as their calls poured in. “As soon as they called and I picked up, I think they figured it out,” Mitchell said, erupting into a self-deprecating laugh. “It was kind of laughable, you know what I mean? It’s laughable, but at the same time, it’s a serious matter. It’s shocking to me that someone would sit there and say someone else died.”

The Internet remains such a breeding ground for rumors that even real celebrity deaths are sometimes presumed to be hoaxes—as was the case with the recent death of actor Paul Walker. But despite what the web’s salacious fire-starting ability has done to him personally, Mitchell values the Internet—specifically social media—as a tool to remain in touch with his devoted fans. He contends it is easier to dispel rumors quickly now because of the ubiquitous culture of social media.