In the 2006 comedy-drama film Shortbus, written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, he played the secretly suicidal former prostitute James.

In 1999, Dawson played Tar in The Blur of Insanity, an underground comedy written and directed by John Hussar about partying and drug use in college.

Also in 2000, Dawson appeared as the Bloodied Man in Urbania, an independent drama based on the play Urban Folk Tales.

That same year Dawson played a hustler in "The Mountain King," a short film included in the 2001 LGBT-themed anthology Boys to Men.

[8] Dawson is the graphic designer and a disc jockey for international "Mattachine" dance parties, which he co-founded in New York City in 2008.