He rose to prominence for his role in the TV series The Walking Dead (2015–2016), as well as his portrayal of Dr. Dre in the 2015 film Straight Outta Compton, the latter of which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

Hawkins garnered a brief role in Marvel Studios' Iron Man 3 and went on to star opposite Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore in Universal Pictures' action-thriller Non-Stop.

[5] In 2013, Hawkins made his Broadway debut as Tybalt in the revival of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, acting alongside Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Owens.

In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Hawkins would join the cast of AMC's The Walking Dead as Heath, a key character from Robert Kirkman's comic series.

[6] Hawkins played Dr. Dre in the biopic Straight Outta Compton, from Universal Pictures, which was theatrically released on August 14, 2015,[7] and grossed $201 million at the box office.