Shane Dawson, American comedian and actor
Shane Lee Yaw (born July 19, 1988), known professionally as Shane Dawson, is an American YouTuber. He became one of the first people to rise to fame on the video-sharing platform YouTube.In 2008, at age 19, Dawson began making videos on YouTube and garnered over half a billion views by 2010. Most of his early work consisted of sketch comedy videos, where he would play original characters, impersonate celebrities and make light of popular culture. Some of these impressions later drew criticism for their offensive content, including racial stereotypes.
During this time, Dawson also had a short-lived music career, releasing six original songs such as "Superluv!" and numerous parodies of popular music videos. In 2013, he launched his podcast, Shane and Friends, which ran for four years and produced 140 episodes. The following year, Dawson released his first and only feature film, Not Cool, and appeared on an accompanying 10 episode docu-series The Chair. He has also appeared in the films Smiley (2012) and Internet Famous (2016).
In 2015, Dawson began his show on YouTube about conspiracy theories, which includes his 2019 web series Conspiracy Series with Shane Dawson. In late 2017, he released his first docu-series on YouTube, in which he reconciled with his absent father. From 2019 to 2020, Dawson created and appeared in The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star, a docu-series that follows the life of Jeffree Star, which garnered over 130 million views. His most viewed docu-series are about Jake Paul, Jeffree Star, and TanaCon.As of 2018, Dawson has released two New York Times best-selling books, I Hate Myselfie (2015) and It Gets Worse (2016), and his three YouTube channels have accumulated over 4.5 billion views. Since 2017, he maintains one active channel, shane, with 20 million subscribers and over 4 billion views. On June 30, 2020, YouTube indefinitely suspended monetization on all three of Dawson's channels following a public backlash over his past controversial comments. He returned to YouTube on October 7, 2021.
1988Jul, 19
Shane Dawson
Choose Another Date
Events on 1988
- 14Apr
Soviet Union
In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. - 29May
Ronald Reagan
The U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. - 15Nov
State of Palestine
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council. - 16Nov
Benazir Bhutto
In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan elect populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister of Pakistan. - 19Nov
Slobodan Milošević
Serbian communist representative and future Serbian and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević publicly declares that Serbia is under attack from Albanian separatists in Kosovo as well as internal treachery within Yugoslavia and a foreign conspiracy to destroy Serbia and Yugoslavia.