Shane Dawson facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Shane Dawson
Dawson in July 2016
Personal information
Born	Shane Lee Yaw (1988-07-19) July 19, 1988 (age 36) Long Beach, California, U.S.
Education	Lakewood High School
Occupation	YouTuber actor filmmaker writer musician
Spouse(s)	Ryland Adams ​ (m. 2023)​
YouTube information
Years active	2008–present
Genre	Docuseries vlog sketch comedy music beauty conspiracy theories
Subscribers	18.9 million (main channel) 29.38 million (combined)
Total views	4.37 billion (main channel) 4.8 billion (combined)
Associated acts	BlackBoxTV Lisa Schwartz Brittani Louise Taylor Jeffree Star Joe Nation
Subscriber and view counts updated as of August 25, 2024.

Shane Lee Yaw (born July 19, 1988), known online as Shane Dawson, is an American YouTuber, actor, filmmaker, writer, and musician. Dawson was one of the first people to rise to fame on YouTube after he began making videos in 2008 at the age of 19 and garnered over 500 million views during the next two years.

Most of Dawson's early work consisted of comedy sketches in which he would play original characters, impersonate celebrities, and make light of popular culture. He has released six original songs such as "Superluv!" and numerous parodies of popular music videos. In 2013, he started the podcast Shane and Friends, which ran for 140 episodes over four years. In 2014, he directed, produced, edited, and starred in the romantic comedy film Not Cool and appeared on the accompanying docu-series The Chair. He has also appeared in the horror film Smiley (2012) and the comedy film Internet Famous (2016).

In 2015, Dawson began discussing conspiracy theories on his YouTube channel, which led to his 2019 web series Conspiracy Series with Shane Dawson. In 2017, he released his first docu-series on YouTube, in which he reconciled with his absent father. From 2019 to 2020, he created and appeared in the docu-series The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star, which garnered over 130 million views. His most viewed docu-series are about Jeffree Star, Jake Paul, and Tana Mongeau.

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 collectively accumulated over 4.5 billion views. Since 2017, he has updated only his main channel, which has over 20 million subscribers and over 4 billion views.

Early life

Shane Lee Yaw was born in Long Beach, California, on July 19, 1988. He has two older brothers named Jacob (b. 1980) and Jerid (b. 1985), and the three grew up in a low-income household headed by their single mother, Teresa. He was educated in Lakewood, California, graduating from Lakewood High School in 2006. He was bullied for his weight in school, and his brothers helped him during these times; he later lost 150 pounds (68 kg). He first became interested in making videos when he would hand in videos for school projects with his friends.

Career

Dawson at the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards in 2010

2008–2010: YouTube, ShaneDawsonTV

On March 10, 2008, Dawson made his YouTube channel, called "ShaneDawsonTV". The earliest video that remains on the channel, "Kermit the Frog and Me" was uploaded about 4 months later. Dawson occasionally posts new videos there (mainly short web films, music video parodies, film trailer parodies, and original music) and formerly posted other videos on his second channel "ShaneDawsonTV2", now called "Human Emoji"; however, the use of this channel has mostly been discontinued as of 2012. His third and main YouTube channel, Shane, is where he previously posted vlogs, and now posts original content Mondays through Fridays. He began using this channel in May 2010. In November 2009, Dawson was featured on Attack of the Show!. In 2010, Forbes magazine named him their 25th most famous web celebrity.

2010–2013: Television pilots and music career

On August 11, 2010, Dawson announced that he was making a 30-minute pilot called SD High. Previously, the funding he needed for the pilot was provided by digital media group Take180 after he helped them out with acting in their own videos. The pilot is based on two videos which Dawson uploaded to his main channel in Summer 2010. The story centered around a teenage boy in school and his interactions with the other characters. The pilot's release date was set towards the end of September 2010 on his main YouTube Channel, however Dawson later announced that he had been contacted by a television studio to produce the pilot for their TV channel(s).

Dawson at VidCon 2012

According to Dawson, there is some uncertainty involving the pilot, however it may be a TV show in the future. On March 26, 2011, Dawson uploaded a video to YouTube explaining to his audience that he was working with Happy Madison Productions, Sony Pictures, and some other YouTubers including TheFineBros and BrittaniLouiseTaylor to create the television show. In January 2012, Dawson stated in a video that he was now working on a new television show, which would be semi-based on his life working at a Weight Loss center. He stated that he would be pitching the show soon, and that he was "really excited" for it, and stated the show was "kind of like Arrested Development, but – not." On May 16, 2012, Dawson revealed in a vlog that he was working on a comedy-horror film, explaining that he wanted to write "something like a teen comedy", however that the film would be "scary and fun". Dawson revealed in November 2012 that he was in negotiations to direct a feature-length film. In 2012, Dawson revealed in a vlog that he was working on a music project. In March 2012, Dawson revealed that his debut mainstream single, "Superluv!" would be released that month. The song was released on March 31, 2012, on iTunes, with an accompanying music video debuting on his YouTube channel on the same day. The song managed to chart at 87 in Ireland, 16 on the UK Indie Chart, 163 on the UK Singles Chart and reached the 28th spot on the US iTunes Pop Chart.

On May 8, 2012, Dawson revealed in a video that he has begun working on his next original song, which is tentatively titled "The Vacation Song". He previewed about 10 seconds of the "rough edit" of the song, and stated that he was going to change the mood of the song, saying, "Right now, it's a little too happy, because it's a breakup song. I want it to be more like Kelly Clarkson's 'Since U Been Gone'." He stated that the song would "hopefully" be released by the beginning of June 2012. The song was released on June 23, 2012, with the music video being released a week later. In October 2012, a film called Smiley was released to theaters starring Dawson. In December, Dawson released a new single entitled "Maybe This Christmas".

Dawson with a fan at VidCon 2014

2013–2016: Shane and Friends, The Chair, and books

In June 2013, Dawson started a podcast entitled Shane and Friends. As of 2013, Dawson revealed that he was pitching a talk show and was continuing to pitch the series about him working at a weight loss center. On November 12, 2013, Dawson announced that he was developing the weight loss center project with Sony Pictures Television for NBC. The project has been titled Losin' It and, if picked up, would be a half-hour single-camera comedy series focusing on a successful former-client at a weight loss center who decides to share his inspiration by becoming a consultant at the center, and subsequently becomes the manager by the end of his first day. Darlene Hunt, Will Gluck, Richie Schwartz, Lauren Schnipper, and Dawson would serve as executive producers for the project.

On April 4, 2014, Dawson announced that he had directed and starred in a comedy film in Pittsburgh earlier that year. The film, which was made on a $800,000 budget, was released September 19, 2014. On June 26, he announced that the film would be titled Not Cool. It was part of a Starz original series called The Chair, in which two novice directors are given the same script and must each make their own film from it. People who watched both films then voted online to vote for the films. Not Cool competed against Anna Martemucci's Holidaysburg. Dawson won the competition, winning the $250,000 prize to work on another film project.

In early 2015, Dawson released a memoir titled I Hate Myselfie: A Collection of Essays. The memoir was released by Atria Books/Keywords Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

In July 2016, Dawson released another memoir entitled It Gets Worse: A Collection of Essays. It was released by Atria/Keywords Press.

Dawson with a fan in 2016

2017–2020: YouTube series

In June 2018, Shane uploaded a three-part documentary series titled The Truth About TanaCon, about the TanaCon convention, the company who organized the event—Good Times, ran by talent manager Michael Weist—and the effects the disastrous event had on fans. The series received tens of millions of views in one week and garnered significant media attention. In August 2018, Shane continued the documentary format and covered makeup artist Jeffree Star in a five-part series titled The Secret World of Jeffree Star and also received high amounts of media attention Dawson interviews and experiences a day in the life with Internet celebrity, makeup artist, model, entrepreneur, and singer-songwriter Jeffree Star, learning about his business Jeffree Star Cosmetics. In September 2018, Shane covered YouTuber Jake Paul in an eight-part series titled The Mind of Jake Paul.

In January and February 2019, Shane released a two-part series on conspiracy theories titled Conspiracy Series with Shane Dawson. In July 2019, Dawson returned to YouTube for a one-hour long documentary video titled The Return of Eugenia Cooney about Internet personality Eugenia Cooney. Earlier in the year, Cooney announced that she would be taking a break from social media to focus on her health.

In October 2019, Dawson released The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star, which follows Dawson and Star as they plan and design a new makeup and merchandise collection called The Conspiracy Collection.

Personal life

Dawson began dating YouTuber Lisa Schwartz in December 2011. In July 2015, he confirmed that he had separated from Schwartz. He began dating YouTuber Ryland Adams in 2016, and they became engaged on March 19, 2019. Having previously lived in Calabasas, California, he moved in August 2021 to Colorado, where he and Adams purchased a farm for $2.2 million.

On January 3, 2023, Dawson and Adams married in Colorado. In July of the same year, they announced via Adams's vlog channel that they were expecting twin babies. On December 10, 2023, Dawson announced the birth of their twin sons.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web

Podcasts

Discography

Singles

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Shane Dawson para niños