DeVante Young is a transfer student from Douglas High.
History[]
Early Life[]
He is a troubled, loner kid with quite a reputation. Secretly, he dreams of reinventing himself and believes his opportunity has arisen when he is transferred to Bayside High.[1]
Troubles at Bayside[]
Upon arriving at Bayside, DeVante finds that he is an outsider, and immediately hates the school. After a talk with A.C. Slater, however, he is convinced to give Bayside a shot, and signs up for the school musical. DeVante finally begins to enjoy his time at Bayside, but finds he is put at the center of a scandal when Ronald Toddman announces that several iPads were stolen from the school — Aisha immediately believes it to have been DeVante given the same occurred at Douglas. Eventually, DeVante is cleared of the charges when the iPads show up in Toddman's office, having been obscured by several boxes of photographs.
After performing the school musical, DeVante and the other students find their performance scrutinised by Tanner, the school critic. DeVante and Lexi confront Tanner, and this ends in an altercation in which DeVante shoves Tanner. Tanner exaggerates the shove and, in return, DeVante is reported to the school board and his expulsion is brought before the school administration. DeVante refuses to invite his grandmother to the hearing, but she is invited by Lexi and Daisy regardless, but makes the situation worse for DeVante. Eventually, Daisy and Lexi are able to blackmail Tanner — when it is revealed he didn't actually attend the performance — into admitting that he lied. This is enough to allow DeVante to remain at Bayside High.
Pandemic and Return to School[]
After the pandemic, DeVante returned to school along with all the other students. During their first school assembly, Aisha was sitting with DeVante and spotted Nadia. She started to call out to Nadia, but DeVante stopped her. He later told her things with Nadia fizzled out and asked her not to talk to Nadia about it. Despite this, Aisha confronted Nadia and learned that Nadia believed DeVante had cheated on her.
At the Last Year Party Mac had thrown, Aisha went back to DeVante to ask him about it. He told her to mind her own business, but she kept pushing and called the number that Nadia believed was the girl he was cheating with. She was shocked when Toddman's phone began to ring. DeVante admitted that he'd texted Toddman during the pandemic because he was worried about getting his grandmother sick, so Toddman let DeVante stay with him. Aisha then told DeVante she thought he was making a mistake by letting Nadia get away and didn't want him to do that. They then went together to help clean up after the party.[2]
DeVante and Nadia got back together after the party.[3]
History Presentation[]
In Modern Southern California History, DeVante was grouped with Mac and Jamie to do a presentation on earthquakes. DeVante immediately started making a plan, but Jamie was distracted watching his father move out on the Ring cam. DeVante started writing the presentation himself and suggested they practice it. When Jamie started crying while trying to read the presentation, DeVante and Mac decided to toughen Jamie up a little. They spent the day trying to do that. When Slater found out what they were doing, he called them into his office and told Jamie he couldn't go through life burying his feelings. He encouraged Jamie to admit he was having the feelings for a reason and it was okay. Jamie realized it was okay to be sad that his parents were splitting up. They were able to finish their presentation and Jamie was able to read it without a problem.[4]
Meeting Nadia's Parents[]
Nadia invited DeVante to her house to meet her parents and have dinner, which he agreed to. On the day of the meeting, she asked if he needed a ride, but he said he didn't and asked if he could bring anything. She suggested a few possible gifts for her stepmother. When Lexi learned what he was doing, she offered to give him lessons on how to meet his girlfriend's rich parents, but he said he didn't have time as he needed to catch the bus right away to get to Nadia's on time. Despite leaving immediately, DeVante was late to Nadia's house. Things were tense until DeVante learned they had a Black British butler and commented that they had a "Geoffrey." This comment broke the ice and conversation flowed more easily. When DeVante started to talk about the difficulties of riding the bus, Nadia suggested they give DeVante the Volvo they had that no one was driving. The butler brought him a key and he drove it home that night.
The gift made DeVante nervous, but he used the car to drive Daisy and Aisha to school the next day. He was worried about Daisy drinking in the car because she might spill. She didn't, but as she got out of the car, Spencer can his unicycle into the door, denting it.
DeVante got a job at The Max to earn the $500 he needed to pay for the repair. This plan was to get it repaired and then give it back. After the school's talent show, DeVante drove Nadia home, but made her ride in the back seat so she wouldn't see the dent. When she confronted him about it, he showed her the dent and told her his plan to pay it off. She told him it wasn't a big deal and she'd just put the repair on her card. This upset him, as he'd been stressed out about it all day and it wasn't a big deal for her. He left and said she could keep the car.
The next morning, Aisha and Daisy were upset with DeVante for giving the car back. He said it was his fault for dating someone who didn't understand how his economic status affected him. Nadia came to The Max, where she apologized for ignoring her own privilege. He said he wanted to keep his job to earn enough money to buy his own car, but he was okay with borrowing hers until he was able to do that.[5]
Lexi's Play[]
DeVante and Lexi were talking about a play they were doing when Jamie came in and said some parents at another school were suing to get a trans girl kicked off the soccer team. Later, at a rehearsal, Lexi decided to cancel that musical and put on her own show, which she said would solve transphobia. As they started rehearsing, DeVante asked her if she was sure she wanted to go through with it. He understood why she was doing it because during the protests in 2020, Bayside kids kept checking on him. DeVante decided to tell the Prism Club and they showed up and told her that the play might do more harm than good. Lexi decided to replace DeVante with Spencer, who then quit as he felt uncomfortable playing Martin Luther King, Jr. DeVante encouraged her to let the kids from Prism help her. He told her that sometimes, you just want to talk to people who get it and he and Jamie offered to go with her to support her.[6]
Career Fair[]
DeVante attended the Bayside High career fair with his friends. At the fair, he talked to a pilot, Frank Douglas, for a few minutes before Daisy, who had made a strict schedule for the day, whisked him away. Daisy continued to rush them around the fair until Daisy finally snapped at them for not taking it seriously. In turn, they told her that she'd ruined the experience for them by rushing them around and dismissing things they were actually interested in. DeVante in particular said that he didn't get supportive or encouraging remarks like she did. He got told to stay out of trouble. It was nice for one day to hear that he could do whatever he wanted to do. At the end of the fair, Daisy came to DeVante with a stack of pamphlets that she had collected for him and apologized to him.[7]
Musical[]
DeVante and Lexi performed in the musical together, leading Nadia to conclude that she and Jamie were dating the most talented kids in school.[8]
Auditioning[]
DeVante was at The Max when Phil Dapatone approached him and handed him a card, which creeped him out. Lexi recognized the name and said he was a recording executive and wanted DeVante to audition for him. She immediately offered to be his agent and started making calls on his behalf. She learned that the audition was to be in a boy band. That didn't interest DeVante, but she said it was just a stepping stone to get him famous enough that he could do whatever he wanted. DeVante went to the audition. Phil loved his voice and asked him to stay and meet Chuck, but DeVante said he had to get back to school. This upset Phil, who said DeVante couldn't be in the band and go to school. DeVante decided to stay in school, because since coming to Bayside, he'd finally started to believe he had a way out of the hood other than picking up a ball or a microphone.[9]
Dance Contest[]
When Gil revealed that he was a spy from Valley and had erased all the volunteer hours they'd earned, they had to come up with another way to get 15,000 by midnight that day. Toddman suggested a dance contest, with mandatory attendance and participation by all students. At the dance contest, DeVante danced with Nadia. With seven hours left, Nadia said she was getting tired, so Jamie offered her some of his water, though DeVante told him it was actually an energy drink. At the end of the night, they were able to get all the hours they needed.[10]
Spirit Competition[]
As the Spirit Competition approached, DeVante tried to rehearse to sing. He struggled and, when they learned Valley was sabotaging their players, Nadia wondered if they had sabotaged DeVante somehow. He finally realized he was struggling because he had school spirit. He wanted to win because he loved Bayside. This helped him and when the time came, he sang beautifully. After all the events were completed, Bayside came out on top.[11]
Personality[]
DeVante is a troubled, loner kid with quite a reputation. He is very talented at singing.
Relationships[]
Romantic[]
Nadia Coleman[]
Friendships[]
Lexi Haddad-DeFabrizio[]
Aisha Garcia[]
Daisy Jiménez[]
Mac Morris[]
Jamie Spano[]
Appearances[]
Season 1[]
- Pilot
- Clubs and Cliques
- The Bayside Triangle
- The Fabulous Birchwood Boys
- Rent-A-Mom
- Teen-Line
- House Party
- The Todd Capsule
- All in the Hall
- Showdown
Season 2[]
Gallery[]
 DeVante Young has a photo gallery.
|
|---|
Notes and Trivia[]
- Despite being scouted by A.C. Slater for the Bayside Tigers, it is revealed that DeVante has an aptitude for theatre and singing.
- He lives with his Grandma.