In 2017, Lawley worked with Caylen on their show H8TERS and starred in the Daytime Emmy Award winning first season of "Zac & Mia".

In 2018, footage of Lawley resurfaced in which he used racial slurs, leading to his role in The Hate U Give being recast, and to him being dropped by his talent agency, CAA.

[citation needed] In 2012, Lawley started a collaborative channel Our2ndLife (commonly known as O2L) along with JC Caylen, Ricky Dillon, Trevi Moran, Connor Franta, and Sam Pottorff.

[4] Lawley's first starring role was in the 2015 film The Chosen in which he played a 19 year old who must contend with a demon to save his niece.

[9] In 2017, Lawley and JC Caylen starred in and executive produced their show H8TERS, a comedy about internet celebrities, haters and millennial culture.

[14] In 2017 he also starred in the series "Zac & Mia", a show that follows the lives of two ordinary teenagers undergoing cancer treatment.

[15] In 2018, Lawley received a nomination for the Best Actor In A Digital Drama Daytime Emmy Award for his performance in "Zac & Mia".

I respect Fox's decision to recast this role for The Hate U Give as it is an important story, and it would not be appropriate for me to be involved considering the actions of my past.

[22] The series did extremely well, gaining over 25 million views collectively across all ten episodes and a second season began filming in November 2019.