find out everything about the life and career of the controversial influencer

Gessica Kayane Rocha de Vasconcelos, known only as Gkay, is a Brazilian actress, comedian and influencer. In fact, Gkay is one of the main personalities on the internet today, accumulating more than 20 million followers on Instagram alone.

The native of Paraíba began her career posting humorous videos on YouTube, greatly influenced by fellow comedian Whindersson Nunes. Nowadays, Gkay still has one of the most popular parties, Farofa da Gkay, which has become one of the main events of the year. The party that is held to celebrate his birthday brings together several internet personalities and famous people moving around the internet.

However, despite all its success, Gkay is also a rather controversial name. The most recent controversy involves jokes made about her by Fábio Porchat, Paulo Viera and even Tatá Werneck, which has become one of the most talked about topics on the network. Below we will learn a little more about who Gkay is, his career and also the main controversies involved.

Who is Gkay?

Gessica Kayane Rocha de Vasconcelos, was born in the city of Solânea, in the interior of Paraíba on December 3, 1992. However, she is better known as Gkay, which is a nickname she got from a friend who thought her name was ugly and too long. And she ended up catching on, nowadays everyone knows her as Gkay.

Currently 30 years old, Gessica Kayane is an actress, comedian, YouTuber and digital influencer, well known for her humor videos. Gkay comes from a simple family in Paraíba, daughter of Dona Maria das Graças. Her father passed away in 2018, victim of a massive heart attack.

The influencer has always been an extroverted and very communicative person. Furthermore, she always dreamed of working with art and being an artist. But until she reached stardom, the young woman considered other careers and went to two colleges. But she ended up being successful on the internet.

Personal life

Gkay previously had a relationship with YouTuber Rezende, who previously dated digital influencer Virgínia Fonseca. However, the influencer is currently having a romance with billionaire João Appolinário Neto, better known as Neto Appolinário. They met through mutual friends.

For those who don’t know Neto Appolinário, he is a businessman and heir to the owners of the company Polishop, but he became famous after running a reality show. However, neither of them speak about their involvement publicly, despite the businessman being present at the Gkay brand launch event.

Career of Gkay

A true social media phenomenon, Gkay produces content focused on comedy and has 20.7 million followers on his Instagram account, in addition to 1.6 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. Furthermore, she was the first digital influencer to reach the 1 billion impressions mark on Instagram.

How did she become famous?

It all started thanks to the encouragement of friends and family who praised her for her comical personality. So, after her brother showed her a video of Whindersson Nunes, she decided to post her first video, back in 2013.

After the first video, Gkay realized that he liked expressing himself on the internet. So she gathered borrowed equipment and with the help of a friend who edited her videos, she started posting various content on YouTube.

Therefore, as time went by, she gained more and more followers and had a growing audience until she began to attract a lot of attention on the internet. Thus, advertising work soon began to appear and she became increasingly known.

So much so that in 2017 Gkay launched his first stand-up tour, which went through several states in the Northeast. As a result, she began to receive invitations from celebrities to participate in several other projects.

Furthermore, Gkay’s friendship with celebrities, such as Carlinhos Maia, Anitta and Whindersson, only made his popularity increase more and more. Then, with her career on the rise, in 2019, the influencer studied acting at the Wolf Maya Actors School.

What is Gkay Farofa?

In addition to her career on the internet, Gkay is the creator of one of the biggest and most popular parties on the calendar, Farofa da Gkay.

Since 2017, the artist has held Farofa da Gkay, where she brings together several celebrities and digital influencers to celebrate her birthday. This event lasts 3 days and includes musical shows.

Normally, the event was held at a resort in João Pessoa, Paraíba. But, with the pandemic, the place closed, so Gkay chose a luxury hotel in Fortaleza to hold the party in December 2021, which was closed to receive the influencer’s guests.

The 2021 edition cost more than R$2 million and during the three days of the event there were great shows, lots of sex, shacks and reconciliations. And it was Gkay herself who covered all the expenses, which included accommodation, food, drinks and entrance fees.

In 2022, the party got even bigger, having a team of attractions such as Anitta and Pedro Sampaio, Ivete Sangalo, Luísa Sonza, Wesley Safadão, Pabllo Vittar and other artists. And as the event gains greater proportions with each edition, this year Farofa da Gkay was even broadcast live on Multishow and Globloplay.

Films

With his name increasingly in the spotlight, Gkay signed contracts with two major streaming companies, Netflix and Prime Video, as well as other platforms. Therefore, his first film, called “Carnaval” was released in 2020 on Netflix and reached the top 10 worldwide.

After that, she released another film, in November 2021, “Detective Madeinusa”, with fellow comedian Tirullipa, who was even expelled from Farofa that year.

In addition, Gkay also has a Netflix Christmas film, “A Christmas Full of Grace”, which was recently released in November 2022.

TV programs

In 2019, Gkay received an invitation from Whindersson Nunes, his first influence in this universe, to participate in the comedy program “Os Roni”, on Multishow. In this program, the actress and comedian played the character Jennyfer.

In addition, Gkay also participated in Dr. Darci in 2020 and Dança dos Famosos in 2022. As well as the Multishow comedy Vai que Cola and the Prime Video reality show, LOL: Se Rir, Já Era.

Awards

Thus, with so much influence on the internet, and having made some films and appearances on television programs, Gkay has already received some award nominations. Like Humor Influencer, from the Jovem Brasileiro Award, which she won, as well as MIAW Icon, from the MTV Millennial Awards Brasil, which she also won in 2022.

Before the fame

Before becoming a phenomenon on social media, Gkay worked delivering flyers, then as a saleswoman and receptionist.

Furthermore, as previously mentioned, she went to two colleges. Firstly, Gkay studied International Relations at the Federal University of Paraíba and then Law at a private college. However, he ended up giving up both to work on the internet.

Therefore, in 2016, three years after starting posting videos, the influencer decided to focus solely on her work on the internet. So, thanks to her sense of humor in her publications, the number of followers only increased over time and she became the phenomenon she is today.

Controversies involving Gkay

Despite all her popularity, the influencer has been canceled on social media several times. One of the times was when Gkay continued producing content with other influencers and former BBBs during the pandemic, including dance videos for TikTok. Therefore, she was heavily criticized and the reason was that she was disrespecting social isolation and causing crowds.

However, after that there were other more striking controversies that moved the artist’s social networks, who even deactivated her account after the publication of old tweets that were interpreted as fatphobic and racist.

Gkay and Fábio Porchat

The comedian was recently the target of some jokes made by comedians such as Fábio Porchat, Paulo Vieira and Tatá Werneck during the Best of the Year awards, on Rede Globo.

One of the jokes made by Porchat said the following: “I look at Jô and I wonder what he would do as a Gkay in front of him, right Tatá? That’s why sometimes he chose to leave us.”. At another point, Paulo Vieira also mentioned Gkay: “We are so worried when we are going to present something on Globo, we have to do something high-level and elegant. And then I saw that Globo broadcast Farofa da Gkay”insinuating that the broadcaster lowered its standards.

Tatá ended up saying that he “was afraid of Gkay”, and even apologized to Fiuk, who until the presenter’s interview with Gkay, was considered the worst interviewee on Lady Night.

After the comments, Gkay took to social media to vent about being the target of jokes. “I’m tired of being this shitty joke to people, of being a laughing stock, of being scum, of being treated, I don’t know. Man, I’m just at home with my family watching movies and that’s what I get. I had to leave the room to go cry in my room and my mother couldn’t see because I didn’t want to ruin her Christmas.”she said in a tweet.

And he continued: “I’m really tired, really tired. In fact, I’m exhausted because I don’t know what I did to make people hate me so much, humiliate me so much, day after day. And now even on national television, showing that I am a joke in a bad way for the whole of Brazil.”

Hate

So after the outburst saying that she was tired of being the target of hate, internet users went further in their hate attacks directed at the influencer. And many even questioned her about the rumors that she had a starburst attack while recording the film on Netflix.

“For someone who tried so hard, in such a shameful way, to be funny in the interview like the one you gave to Tata, you are taking great offense to a joke, which was in fact funnier than your entire career.”posted a Twitter user.

“What they did to Gkay yesterday on Domingão is just a portrait of what any sensible person thinks of her. She wants to do drama later, but from the stories that come out from behind the scenes, no one can handle the attacks of stardom and situations that she causes anymore.”said another user.

“It must be an honor to have Gkay fans dislike you. He spends the whole year propagating various shit, supporting shitty, rich people, stepping on others, unprofessional behind the scenes and now he’s in this with Porchat. They still bought it with Will Smith. I will leave the internet”posted comedian João Pimenta.

Star show

Apparently there is a reason why Gkay has been the target of so much mockery and hate, both on television and on the internet. One of the explanations would be the influencer’s attitude during the recording of her latest film with Netflix, A Christmas Full of Grace. There are rumors that Gkay had several bouts of stardom during production.

According to these rumors, the actress had had aggressive behavior towards several co-workers, as well as being late several times. Including 5 hours to try on clothes, which she would have shouted at people and even ruined one of the costumes.

Furthermore, YouTuber Felipe Castanhari also endorsed these accusations, stating that Gkay really mistreated the people who work with her.

“Do you know what the line is for me that someone is a burglar and doesn’t deserve even the slightest bit of morals from me? This is when she mistreats people who work with her. And since I was once at the same agency as her… And I had the same people who worked with me working with her… Then you know who the people are. I don’t admit people who mistreat those who work with them”he said in a podcast interview.

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Sources: G1 JC Metrópoles JC Extra Na Telinha CNN