His initial stories revolve around his attempts to adjust to the family's sudden loss of wealth and subsequent banishment to Schitt's Creek, a small town his father purchased as a joke for his birthday years earlier.

Schitt's Creek chronicles the lives of the once wealthy Rose family, which is forced to move to the small titular town after losing their fortune to a crooked business manager.

[3] Introduced as the adult son of Johnny (Eugene Levy)[4] and Moira Rose (Catherine O'Hara),[5] David is a former New York City gallerist with little direction and a sheltered worldview.

[6][7] The tight quarters of their new home, the Schitt's Creek Motel, create friction and opportunities for David and his disconnected family as they slowly grow closer.

[6][9] David eventually takes a job as a brand manager at a nearby clothing store, Blouse Barn, before opening his own local goods business, Rose Apothecary.

The idea came after Levy says he felt overwhelmed by the wealth showcased on American reality TV programs like Keeping Up with the Kardashians and The Real Housewives franchise and wondered what would happen if those families could no longer express their affection through "gifts and parties".

[16][17] Interested in pursuing the idea from a character-driven perspective, Dan brought the concept to his father, Eugene, who had experience writing character comedy.

In a radio interview with Boston's NPR affiliate, WBUR, Levy related that when crafting David's sexuality and relationships, he "tried writing [from his] experience" as an openly gay man.

[32] His style is also heavily influenced by designers Rick Owens and Ann Demeulemeester[24] and often includes items from Givenchy, Neil Barrett, and Tisci.

[33] To overcome the cost barrier, Levy worked in collaboration with costume designer Debra Hanson to source items from consignment stores, eBay, and other online resale markets at reduced prices.

According to Levy, David's initial relationship with a woman, Stevie, is meant to dispel the notion that the character is gay due to his effeminate nature and push the boundaries of what it means to be traditionally masculine or feminine.

[41] People Magazine's Gillian Telling also had early praise, saying that David's facial expressions and one-liners made him possibly one of the show's best characters.

[42] Mike Hale of The New York Times was noticeably more negative, calling David "mostly shrill and unlikeable," while also suggesting that Dan Levy had inherited none of his father Eugene's talent.

[50] Other critics have echoed similar sentiments, with Devon Ivie of Vulture declaring Patrick and David, "one of the most delightful relationships in recent television history".

[37] Matt Brennan of Paste Magazine also argued that their relationship contributed to the overall "sweetening" of Schitt's Creek in season four, culminating with Patrick's serenading of David with "The Best".

[52] Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast described the sequence as, "the kind of honest romantic, pure expression of love that is never shown on TV between two men, not in that grand of a fashion".

In 2017, Mic named his story one of "the 23 most essential storylines for LGBTQ television history" because it showed that femme men are not "limited to homosexual experiences".

[55][56] That same year, Rolling Stone acknowledged David's proclaimed sexuality as part of a shift in the open representation of bisexual and pansexual individuals on TV.

[57] For his work as David Rose, Dan Levy has received four consecutive nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Comedic Role at the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Canadian Screen Awards.