WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - Keith Gill, the office

worker who shot to notoriety after his online personas and

bullish bets on GameStop ( GME ) sparked a retail trading frenzy,

appears to be re-emerging from obscurity.

Known as "Roaring Kitty" on YouTube and "DeepF***ingValue"

on Reddit's popular WallStreetBets, Gill was a key figure in the

so-called "Reddit rally" in which shares of GameStop ( GME ) surged

1600% at one point in Jan. 2021, crushing hedge funds that had

bet against the videogame retailer.

But after drawing congressional and regulatory scrutiny for

his role in the extraordinary saga, Gill quickly disappeared,

albeit much richer thanks to his GameStop ( GME ) investment which at

one point reached $48 million in value.

For three years, Gill's accounts on YouTube, X, and Reddit

lay dormant. He did no media interviews and when film-makers

came knocking he declined to participate in their projects.

Then out of the blue Gill appeared in recent weeks to

resurface online, sending GameStop's ( GME ) shares soaring once again.

On Monday, they rose 21% after Gill's Reddit account posted

a screenshot showing a $116 million bet on the stock. On

Thursday, they surged almost 50% after Gill's YouTube account

scheduled a livestream for 12 p.m. ET (1600 GMT) on Friday.

The post, featuring Gill's trademark cat, sparked a deluge

of excited messages from his followers, many of whom have

likened the social media phenomenon to a David who took on Wall

Street's Goliaths and won.

"I will watch this screen without blinking all night," a

user with the handle Clay DeNicola posted on Gill's YouTube

channel on Thursday.

Gill has not responded to multiple attempts by Reuters to

contact him.

Born in 1986 to a truck driver and nurse, Gill grew up in

Brockton, Massachusetts. "I grew up playing videogames and

shopping at GameStop ( GME )," he told lawmakers during a 2021 hearing.

He graduated from Stonehill College in 2009 and between 2010

and 2014 worked at a start-up where he tried to build software

to help investors analyze shares, according to his testimony.

"My salary never exceeded $40,000, but I did learn something

about investing. I learned how to do the tedious work of digging

through a company's financials and focusing on its real

long-term value," he said.

"TOO LATE TO BUY?"

While unemployed in 2017 Gill, a husband and father, began

analyzing stocks and investing his savings, an interest he

"pursued passionately" even after taking on a marketing and

financial education job at MassMutual in April 2019.

When in early June GameStop's shares fell on

worse-than-expected earnings, Gill spied an opportunity.

Believing the stock was trading below its fair value, he bought

GME options and from there continued to add to his position, he

said.

Gill began sharing his positions on WallStreetBets in

September 2019, posting a screenshot indicating he had invested

$53,000 in GameStop ( GME ).

With exuberant YouTube streams in which Gill frequently wore

a bright red pirate bandana as he made the bull case for

GameStop ( GME ), and Reddit posts touting his positions, Gill helped to

attract a flood of retail cash into the beleaguered

bricks-and-mortar retailer.

By late Jan. 2021, Gill was up over 4,000% on stock and

options in the company, with his GameStop ( GME ) position plus cash

worth nearly $48 million, according to his posts.

In an April 16, 2021 WallStreetBets post, which would be his

last for three years, Gill shared screen shots showing he had

exercised call options on GameStop ( GME ) to acquire 50,000 more shares

in the retailer, sparking thousands of comments lauding the

punchy move.

Now that Gill is back in the limelight, he is also back in

the crosshairs. The Massachusetts securities regulator, which

had opened and closed a probe into Gill, has said it is again

reviewing his activities. The Securities and Exchange Commission

is also reviewing his trades, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The agency has declined to comment.

Some have accused Gill of causing huge losses for investors

who followed him into GameStop ( GME ), a claim he has long denied.

"I was abundantly clear that my channel was for educational

purposes only, and that my aggressive style of investing was

unlikely to be suitable for most folks," he told lawmakers,

adding his investment thesis focused purely on GameStop's ( GME )

fundamentals.

Still, on Thursday many of his followers were contemplating

buying more GameStop ( GME ) shares, with one handle George Black asking

the group: "Is it too late to buy?"