"Dave" star GaTa talks last season's revealing episode and becoming "an overnight mental health advocate"

Matthias Clamer/FX

What have Lil Dicky and his friends been up to the past year?  Season two of the hit FXX comedy Dave premieres tonight.

The comedy stars Dave Burd a.k.a. Lil Dicky, who plays a fictionalized version of himself -- a neurotic suburban man in his late 20s who tries to become one of the best rappers of all time.  Dicky's real-life hype man, Davionte “GaTa” Ganter, who plays himself in the series, tells ABC Audio that he feels blessed after last year’s impactful episode in which he revealed his own real-life struggle with bipolar disorder.

"I'm getting called upon daily," he explains.  "It’s kind of like I turned into an overnight mental health advocate. And it feels good just to be able to speak use my platform for something positive.”

GaTa says his level of fame has skyrocketed so much in the past year, he’s getting recognized everywhere -- even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's strange, though, because the show must really be so, so, so, on that level to where people can recognize me through the mask, hear my voice," he says.  "I have been out in different scenarios where somebody had just turned around and just hear my voice and recognize me while I got the mask on... It's just a great feeling."

GaTa says he was so inspired by the show’s success, he was seriously about to get a Lil Dicky tattoo on his face, but was talked out of it.

"[Lil Dicky] had to quickly remind me, like, yo, you're an actor, bro," he recalls.  "You don't want to just tattoo your face up.  Your face is the money, you understand. So he slowed me down and made me make the right decision." 

Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 6:00AM by George Costantino and Jason Nathanson Permalink