Jaime Gil da Costa was born in
Petrópolis,
Rio de Janeiro on 29 July 1957, to
machinist Augusto Carneiro da Costa and housewife Vânia Maria Pacheco Costa. Raised in poverty from childhood, he had to work to make ends meet – initially selling sweets made by his mother in the streets, and later as a
flanelinha. He frequently clashed with the police and ended up being arrested multiple times. Due to his tendency to get into brawls, he suffered a
retinal detachment in his left eye which made it blind. He abruptly cut ties with the troupe in 2008 citing creative differences as well as contractual and payment issues; according to Gil, he was being underpaid, and he compared his tenure with the troupe to "
slave labor". His allegations would later be rebutted by Hermes & Renato (then called "Banana Mecânica") in 2011. After eventually making amends, Gil later appeared in many runs of the troupe's theatre play
Uma Tentativa de Show beginning in 2019. Following his experience with Hermes & Renato, Gil announced he no longer intended to appear in media due to fears of censorship, but in 2011 the video production company Jigsaw Produções invited him to open his own
YouTube channel, the "Canal Away". Jigsaw ended their contract with Gil in 2013 and deleted his channel, alleging he failed to fulfill certain obligations and explaining their reasoning in an over 30-minute YouTube video. Gil, on his turn, accused Jigsaw of dishonesty. In 2020, he narrated a
McDonald's commercial promoting their new
McShakes. ==Stroke, final months, and death==