When Dou was in his second year of studies, he participated in the auditions for The Love of the Hawthorn Tree and was subsequently picked as the male lead.

[4][5] Dou rose to fame for his role in Zhang Yimou's film, The Love of the Hawthorn Tree (2010).

[7] Dou starred in films of various genres, most notably, Wolf Totem (2015)[8] and Youth Dinner (2017),[9] which won him the Best Actor award at the 11th Festival Du Cinema Chinois De Paris.

[10] Dou gained mainstream recognition for his role as an antagonistic prince in the highly popular historical drama, Princess Agents.

[17] In 2020, Dou reunited with Tiffany Tang in the historical drama, The Legend of Xiao Chuo, portraying Han Derang.