Dawn Gilliam worked as script supervisor on Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness.
Gilliam often collaborated with J.J. Abrams. Their common projects include Alias, Mission: Impossible III (2006), What About Brian, the unsold pilot Anatomy of Hope, Cloverfield (2008), Super 8 (2011), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015, with Simon Pegg), The Cloverfield Paradox (2018, with Simon Pegg and photographed by Dan Mindel), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
She began working as a script supervisor in the 1990s, beginning with Boyz n the Hood (1991, starring Laurence Fishburne, with Angela Bassett and John Cothran, Jr.). Gilliam again collaborated with Singleton on his films Poetic Justice (starring Lori Petty and featuring Clifton Collins, Jr. and John Cothran, Jr.) and Higher Learning (featuring Michael Buchman Silver).
Gilliam's other film credits include Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993, starring Whoopi Goldberg), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995, starring Eddie Murphy and Joanna Cassidy), Nothing to Lose (1997, starring Michael McKean and featuring Randy Oglesby), Senseless (1998, featuring Cyia Batten, Ivar Brogger, Brad Dourif, Alexander Enberg, Jenette Goldstein, Manu Intiraymi, Richard McGonagle, and Jack Shearer), Men of Honor (featuring Leon Russom), and Deuces Wild (cinematographer John A. Alonzo's last film). She also worked on the Emmy Award-winning biographical made-for-TV movies The Tuskegee Airmen (starring Daniel Hugh Kelly and Christopher McDonald and featuring Graham Jarvis, Tim Kelleher, Ed Lauter, Janet MacLachlan, and Ned Vaughn) and The Rat Pack (featuring David Andrews, Brad Blaisdell, Scott MacDonald, and Dey Young). She later worked on The Hunger Games (2012), Kong: Skull Island (2017), Black Panther (2018, with Stan Lee) and Creed II, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).
In addition, Gilliam worked on Philly and For the People (2002-03, starring Lea Thompson). She collaborated with Star Trek: Voyager regular Robert Duncan McNeill when he directed the pilot for Samantha Who?, on which McNeill's Voyager co-star, Tim Russ, was a regular. Her other television credits include Prison Break and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..