page_title: Shane Dawson
section_title: 2010–13: Television pilots and music career
hierarchical_section_title: Shane Dawson / Career / 2010–13: Television pilots and music career
caption_attribution_description: Shane Dawson speaking at VidCon 2012 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.
context_page_description: Shane Lee Yaw, 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 as well as many instances of blacking up to portray black people and people of color.
  During this time, he also had a short-lived music career, releasing 6 original songs such as "Superluv!" and numerous parodies of popular music videos. In 2013—inspired by Howard Stern—Dawson launched his podcast, Shane and Friends, which ran for four years and produced 140 episodes. The following year, Dawson released his first and only feature film, Not Cool, and appeared on an accompanying 10-episode docu-series The Chair. He has also appeared in the films Smiley and Internet Famous,
context_section_description: 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).
  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 break up 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". On February 5, 2013, Dawson recorded a single titled "F**K Up". The song was released on YouTube and iTunes on March 30, 2013. On October 18, 2013, Dawson released a song entitled "Wanna Make Love To You", with Liam Horne. Dawson does not actually provide vocals to the song, but iTunes credits him as one of the artists.
caption: Dawson at Vidcon 2012
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