Though this was definitely not on your weekly agenda, it is time to turn to voice actor Nicolas Cantu, his experiences with the YouTuber Dream, and the worst things you’ll hear Leonardo from the Ninja Turtles say this week.
Warning: The article mentions the usage of homophobic and ableist slurs. Please proceed forward with caution.
We begin with Dream, AKA Clay, a 24-year-old American YouTuber of some 24 summers with a combined audience of more than 40 million subscribers across his channels. Dream makes Minecraft content. He releases music sometimes. He used to wear a mask, but now he doesn’t as much.
Next, consider Cantu, a 20-year-old former child star and internet personality. Past credits include taking over as the voice of the main character in The Amazing World of Gumball in 2017 and voicing Leonardo in 2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. He’s been nominated for both Annie and Young Artist awards, and his YouTube work under the pseudonym “junky janker” has earned him nearly half a million followers.
Dream and Cantu have been friendly in the past, but recent allegations of Dream grooming members of his fan base seem to have precipitated unrest between the two Gen Z icons. Replying to a Dream parody Twitter account on Nov. 15, 2023, Cantu called Dream “an actual pedophile.”
Seemingly in response, Dream tweeted a video of Cantu riding in an Uber, seemingly inebriated and spouting threats, homophobic and ableist slurs, and self-aggrandizing assertions about his destiny as an immortal golden statue. Accusing his driver of having intelligence that needed to be “brought up from the f****** Mariana Trench,” he went on to compare the people around him to “ants,” claiming that it would take “100,000 of them to take me down.” It goes without saying that the video is decidedly NSFW.
Furthermore, Dream asserted that Cantu had physically assaulted him previously, and tried to again on the night in question.
Replying, Cantu stated he had “slapboxed” Dream. He also stated that while he had been rude to the duo’s Uber driver, it was due to his impaired state. He stressed that he’d tipped the driver substantially and that he’d decided to cut back on drinking in light of the night’s events. Dream, for his part, replied with screenshots of texts allegedly from said Uber driver, claiming that Cantu had not, in fact, tipped him.
A charged social media back-and-forth continued, with unkind words and allegations on both sides. At present, many continue to support Cantu and have been calling out Dream for deliberately attempting to ruin his career as well as blaming him for letting the Gumball actor drink in the first place.
Dream has been responding to the said accusations, clarifying how Cantu was the one with the fake ID that night so he could drink despite not being of the legal drinking age. The YouTuber also alleged that he had never met Cantu before that night and made the video in question on being requested by the actor.
Representatives for Cantu have yet to make a statement about the feud, or what the damaging video footage could mean for his career moving forward.
