From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Shane Lee Yaw (born July 19, 1988), known professionally as Shane Dawson, is an American YouTuber, actor, writer, director, and musician. He was one of the first people to rise to fame on video-sharing website YouTube. In 2008, when Dawson was nineteen years old, he 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 Dawson would play original characters, impersonate celebrities and make light of popular culture. Many of these impressions later drew criticism for their offensive content, including "ghetto girl" Shanaynay (which propagated African-American stereotypes) as well as many instances of blacking up to portray black people and people of color.