Shane Dawson

Shane Lee Yaw (born July 19, 1988), known professionally as Shane Dawson, is an American YouTuber, author, sketch comedian, actor, director, media personality and musician. He was one of the first people to become famous on YouTube, and since kept an online presence.^[3]

Shane Dawson
Dawson in 2016
Personal information
Born	Shane Lee Yaw (1988-07-19) July 19, 1988 (age 36) Long Beach, California, U.S.
Education	Lakewood High School
Occupations	YouTube personality author sketch comedian actor film director musician
Partner(s)	Lisa Schwartz (2011–2015) Ryland Adams (2016–present; engaged 2019)[1]
YouTube information
Years active	2008–present
Subscribers	18.7 million (April 2025)
YouTube information
Channels	shane ShaneDawsonTV ShaneGlossin
Years active	2008-present[2]
Genres	Docuseries Vlog Sketch comedy Beauty
Subscribers	23.3 million (shane) 8.39 million (ShaneDawsonTV) 3.76 million (ShaneGlossin)
Total views	5.61 billion (shane) 1.06 billion (ShaneDawsonTV) 58.9 million (ShaneGlossin)
Creator Awards
Last updated: May 30, 2020

He was born in Long Beach, California. He is known for his sketch-comedy videos, parody, Lets-Play and conspiracy theory videos.^[4][5]

In July 2015, Dawson came out as bisexual.^[6]

Controversy

Dawson has faced some controversy in his career. Past videos where he portrayed African-American celebrities, said the racial slur "nigger" many times and wore blackface went viral which Dawson would apologize for.^[7] He would also garner controversy for comments he made about pedophilia and bestiality with his cat. He would also apologize for these.^[8]

After an old skit of Dawson where he pretended to masturbate to a poster of a then-11 year old Willow Smith went viral, Willow's brother Jaden and mother Jada would say that they are "done with the excuses".^[9]

Target would remove his books from their stores and YouTube would demonetize all three of Dawson's channels.^[10][11]