Beyond the Gates Heartthrob Announces a Major Switch: ‘Goodbye, David Lami Friebe’

February 5 was no ordinary day for the Beyond the Gates head-turner who plays Izaiah. It was the day that he announced to the world via Instagram that “I’m changing my name,” he wrote. “Goodbye, David Lami Friebe. Now it’s Lami. Singular. The return to my roots.

“Lami is my birth name, given to me by my parents. It’s Liberian, named after a relative my father looked up to,” he went on to explain. “I was Lami until about 5 years old when i woke up from a dream and asked my parents to call me David. They said, ‘Aight bet’ — don’t quote me on that — and from that point, David was my nickname.”

For some time, it was a nickname that the future soap star wanted, too. “After we moved to California, throughout school I had a tough time fitting in, and the name ‘Lami’ always stuck out like a pimple,” he said. “I’d always rush over to ask a new teacher to change the name sheet before roll call, so that they didn’t call my legal name ‘Lami’ out loud. I thought it was embarrassing to be different.

“So it was David for a while. Those fears and insecurities stayed tucked in my pocket all the way up until high school. Then I grew up,” he added. “I gained a voice. Started putting myself out there. My senior year, I released my first EP, and with that release, I turned those pockets inside out. I chose myself and embraced my authentic identity.

“I released under the stage name LAMI. But I was still David to those around me. Until I met Nia.” The leading man’s now-wife Nia Renee “was the first person to ignore David and call me Lami until I started introducing myself as such,” he said. “She was also the one who encouraged me to take acting classes, write scripts, shoot films. I gained a new level of confidence and skills, but I kept the name ‘David Lami Friebe’ for all things film-related to separate that side of myself from my music, still under ‘LAMI’.

“That split in artistic personality survived until now. This industry has a way of shaking up your world, throwing unexpected curveballs and [bleeping] up your plans,” he continued, “and I’ve learned that the best thing you can do to manage the volatility is to stay true to yourself, trust yourself, trust your work and lean on your loved ones. Who I am is the same when I’m singing or acting, holding drumsticks or operating a camera. My art and expression comes from the same place. So there’s no need for two different stage names. There’s no need for six syllables. We can keep it blunt. Straight to the point. Lami.”