‘Dave’ Star GaTa Developing Animated Series ‘Ghetto Brilliance’ At Onyx Collective

EXCLUSIVE: Davionte “GaTa” Ganter is working on an animated series for Onxy Collective.

The Dave star revealed that he was developing Ghetto Brilliance with the Disney-owned brand during a Deadline Contenders panel about the FX Networks comedy.

Contenders TV — Deadline’s Complete Coverage

GaTa, who plays Dave’s friend and hype man in the FXX series, said that Dave co-creator Dave Burd allowed him to “live his wildest dreams”.

“I’m working on this cartoon right now, it’s in development with Onyx Collective and it’s gonna be amazing, it’s called Ghetto Brilliance. I just want to say this bro, I’m really living my dreams bro. I’m performing at Lollapalooza, I just had a sold out show, and [Lil] Dicky was my hype man,” he said.

The project, which shares a title with the album that he released in 2017, is based on GaTa’s life growing up in South Central. It follows a relentlessly positive 15 year old Devon, voiced by the man himself, as he navigates adolescence against the chaotic backdrop of South Central Los Angeles in 2003.

Maxwell Theodore Vivian, co-exec producer of Amazon’s Upload and NBC’s American Auto, is writing and exec producing and will serve as showrunner.

20th Television Animation is the studio and is producing in association with 3 Arts.

3 Arts’ Ari Lubet and Jermaine Johnson are exec producing alongside Vivian, GaTa, Mike Hertz and Daniel C. Katz.

Onyx Collective, which won the project in a highly competitive process, is a curated content brand run by Disney for creators of color and underrepresented voices. It is run by Freeform President Tara Duncan and its content, which includes Questlove’s Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised), lives on streaming service Hulu.

GaTa is the “hero” of the final episode of season two of Dave, according to its main star. The second season sees Dave struggle with success and he reshapes his relationships with his friends.

“We call it Dave, but the show, with the final episode,” Burd said. “You think it’s gonna be about my story, but it really is GaTa’s episode. It’s true to life, I obviously am a guy chasing his dreams and going after certain things, but I’ve never done a single show without this guy. He’s one of my best friends ever and I wouldn’t be where I am without him.”

Ryan Fleming contributed to this story.