Shane Dawson

A knack for creating outrageous, foul-mouthed characters in short comic videos helped to make Shane Dawson a star on YouTube and granted him access to mainstream fame through a variety of platforms. Born Shane Lee Yaw on July 19, 1988 in Long Beach, California, he began making short comedic videos in high school as a means of contending with a tumultuous home life. He developed his technical skills in video production while in high school and launched his first YouTube channel, ShaneDawsonTV, in 2008; one of his early videos, "Fred is Dead," which parodied Lucas Cruikshank's hyperactive character Fred Figglehorn, attracted substantial viewer numbers, which helped to mint Dawson as a nascent YouTube star. Subsequent videos, which featured Dawson parodying pop culture figures like Paris Hilton or performing as recurring characters of his own creation, like the garishly dressed Shanaynay or the aggressive but affectionate Aunt Hilda, led to the creation of a second YouTube channel, ShaneDawsonTV2, and a third, titled Shane, which showcased his daily video blog entries. He soon began working on larger-scale projects, including a series titled "SD High," and a show in conjunction with Sony Pictures and Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Pictures shingle. Neither of these came to fruition, but Dawson's first music video, "SUPERLUV!" reached No. 28 on the iTunes Pop chart. In 2013, he added a podcast, Shane and Friends, to his ever-increasing media empire, and directed his first feature, "Not Cool" (2014). The film, produced as part of the reality competition series "The Chair" (Starz), received universally negative reviews, but won the competition, earning Dawson a $250,000 cash prize. Dawson made his publishing debut with I Hate Myselfie, a collection of personal essays based on his upbringing and experiences. A proposed pilot for NBC titled "Losin' It" failed to receive a full order of episodes, but Dawson rebounded by signing with the subscription video service Fullscreen for new video content. He also earned headlines that same year for releasing a video in which he came out to viewers as bisexual.