Shane Lee Yaw (known as Shane Dawson) is an American YouTuber, actor, filmmaker, writer, and musician. Born on July 19, 1988, he was one of the first to gain fame on YouTube. Dawson started making videos in 2008 at the age of 19, amassing over 500 million views in two years. His early work was primarily comedy sketches featuring original characters and celebrity impersonations, though some content drew criticism for racial stereotypes.

He has released six original songs, including "Superluv!" and numerous parodies of popular music videos. In 2013, he launched the podcast Shane and Friends, which ran for 140 episodes over four years. In 2014, Dawson directed, produced, edited, and starred in the romantic comedy film Not Cool and appeared in the docu-series The Chair. His acting credits also include the horror film Smiley (2012) and the comedy film Internet Famous (2016).

In 2015, Dawson began exploring conspiracy theories on his YouTube channel, leading to his 2019 web series Conspiracy Series with Shane Dawson. In 2017, he produced his first YouTube docu-series, in which he reconciled with his estranged father. From 2019 to 2020, he produced and appeared in the docu-series The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star, which received over 130 million views. His most viewed docu-series feature Jeffree Star, Jake Paul, and Tana Mongeau.

Dawson is also an accomplished author, having released two New York Times bestsellers: I Hate Myselfie (2015) and It Gets Worse (2016). Collectively, his three YouTube channels have over 4.5 billion views. Since 2017, Dawson has primarily updated his main channel, which boasts over 20 million subscribers and 4 billion views.

In June 2020, YouTube suspended monetization on all his channels indefinitely, following backlash over controversial comments, particularly regarding underage girls and zoophilia. After a hiatus, Dawson returned to YouTube on October 7, 2021.