Sumith Prasad
In Netflix’s sitcom ‘The Vince Staples Show,’ Vince Staples is dating a nurse named Deja. He introduces his partner to his mother Anita hoping that the latter will approve of her. Vince dreams of leading a quiet life where he can return to his girlfriend daily without anything remarkable happening. Even though he fails to do it, Deja remains a constant presence in his life. Although the series is loosely based on the life of the rapper, Deja is not his girlfriend. She is a fictional character conceived for the show. Still, the comedy-drama connects to reality through Deja and her storyline!
The Reality Behind Vince Staples’ Girlfriend
Deja doesn’t have a known real-life counterpart. Vince Staples has always been cautious or private about his personal relationships and he hasn’t revealed whether he is currently dating anyone. Even though several plot points in the series are based on events that happened in the rapper’s life, his show heavily relies on fiction and the character Deja is a part of it. Vince conceived the series as a “full display of day-to-day reality — the good, the bad, and the things we’ve grown so accustomed to experiencing that they don’t carry any distinction,” as per Netflix’s Tudum.
To explore the ordinariness of day-to-day life, the show needs a few archetypal characters and the sense of normality they bring to the narrative. Deja can be seen as one of these characters. She is not drastically different from a typical partner. She is an independent woman who tries to resist the imposition of her elders. She also takes care of her loved ones and cherishes joy whenever she sees them happy, as the scenes set in the amusement park depict. Her meeting with her boyfriend’s mother and her efforts to create a bond with the latter are extremely relatable.
Through these plot points, Vince succeeds in bringing out the ordinariness of romantic relationships. That’s also the reason why the rapper tells Deja that nothing remarkable happened in his life after he gets arrested and kills someone – despite the extraordinary things he does, he returns to her as the same person. The peace and comfort he craves from her can also be paralleled with what people expect from their respective partners in real life.
Andrea Ellsworth, known for her performance as Didi in Showtime’s ‘Shameless’ and Devon in Apple TV+’s ‘Truth Be Told,’ plays Deja. The actress also features in Netflix’s ‘Gentefied’ as Natalia, ‘All Day and a Night’ as Kim, and ‘#BlackAF’ as Mikala.
Vince Staples and Dating
Even though Vince is currently not publicly dating anyone, he had relationships in the past. “Eight [girlfriends], but only three were real, like more than a week. So not a lot. I don’t get out much,” he told Isabelle Hellyer for Vice in 2016. He added that he didn’t regularly go on dates. “It’s kinda unnecessary. I don’t drink, so I don’t know where I would go. I mean, I’ve been places with girls, but it’s not like in the movies where you’re like, ‘Meet me here for dinner and a movie.’ Plus, I was poor for like 20 years, so I wasn’t trying to pay for a date,” the musician added.
Vince dated someone on-and-off since middle school but the relationship ended in 2015. They lived in Orange County, California. She disappeared from his life after leaving behind a goodbye note. “She’s a good girl who deserves to be who she wants to be,” he told The Fader about her. In 2018, he said that dating was hard for him. When podcaster Big Boy asked him whether he was dating, the rapper replied, “Yeah but it just did not really work for me like that to be real. Cause, I am kind of mean.”
Read More: The Vince Staples Show: All Filming Locations of the Netflix Series Explored
