Welling's career began in dance, before his rise in the indie film world.
As a film director, Shawn Welling's first film, "House of Dreams", won a gold and a platinum Remi at the Worldfest International Film Festival. Welling's second film, "The Messenger: 360 days of bolivar," was released at Landmark, AMC, and Angelika Theaters to sold out screenings, and was awarded best feature film of 2009 by Houston Press. In 2011, Welling premiered his third feature film, also based on a true story, "Project Aether".

In 2011, Welling's feature film Project Aether, earned Critics Choice Awards for 'Best Feature', 'Best Actor', and 'Best Overall World Premier' by the Houston Film Critics Society, as well as a Best Local Filmmaker Award from Houston Press, which described it as "a patchwork of the sci-fi, horror and conspiracy theory genres.

Welling began filming "AXI: Avengers of Xtreme Illusions" (winner of the grand remi for "Best Web Series" 2012 & 2013) showcasing artists dancing in their element.

The series has, so far, enjoyed a six season online run on YouTube, and has featured appearances by Chachi Gonzales, Lee Majors, Phillip Chebeeb, and others, including Incroyable Talents Les Twins. Dance Spirit magazine lauded the series as sort of "Once Upon a Time" meets "The Twilight Zone" meets insanely good hip hop-with a Tim Burton-esque quality that's just creepy enough.

The same year Welling released his fourth feature, "The Legend of Dark Horse County, starring Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man), Michael Biehn (the Terminator), and Olivia "Chachi" Gonzales.

In 2015, Welling premiered what is to date his most critically acclaimed project. The film, a short entitled "If I Could Talk," has won awards on multiple continents.

In addition to being awarded the crystal award for Best Houston Production at the 2015 WorldFest Houston International Film Festival, the short has garnered over 130 million downloaded views and millions of comments online.

With a heartrending and relatable (to any dog lover) story, "If I Could Talk" has become Shawn Welling's most popular film by far.

A successful feature interpretation "If I Could Run" and a short companion piece "If I Could Bark" soon followed.

Welling entered 2016 with four shorts and two features in production and an ambitious slate of coming features, shorts, and webisodes, including the true-life family feature, "The Blimp Trap."

in 2017, welling released "Strange Bird", an ambitious speculative fiction short film with an epic focus. Star, Preslee Tucker, won a rising star acting award for her work on the film, the eighth acting honor for welling films, joining over fifty official accolades for Shawn Welling's small independent studio. That year Welling was also named "Filmmaker Ambassador for the Chinese/American partnership" that has become a signature of the Worldfest International Film Festival.

Welling Films has expanded his successful If I Could series with "If I Could Run (2018), a full feature film which won numerous awards such as "Best Feature" and "Best Actress" with Don Miller of the Miller Family as producers. Afterwards, "An American Ghost Tail", was produced, starring his canine companion Ranger, alongside Chloe Klitus, and Preslee Tucker. American Ghost Tail won "Best Horror Film" at the "Gulf Coast Film Festival".

Welling Films joined with Deepwater Productions to create "The Last Astronaut, first screened at Cinemark theaters at Worldfest.

The movie, "The Last Astronaut" went on to win 5 awards, "Rising Star - Eva Igo", "Best Young Actress - Chloe Klitus", "Best Young Actress - Alexis Arnold", "Best Cinematography", "Best Sci-Fi feature", and 1 nomination for "Best Supporting Actor" - Darrin Henson.

For 2019 - 2020, Welling has completed production in directing for Deepwater Productions motion picture group "Narco Sub" would return Welling back to directing Lee Majors along with Robert Lasardo and action favorite Tom Sizemore - plus an adventurous sci-fi drama "Monstrous: Interview with a Killer".

Welling also produced and directed 3 award winning shorts that year and another K-9 based Featurette in 2020 called "Flight 483" with producers Life In Sight.

In the fall of 2021 Welling would reunite with executive producer Don Miller for the exciting cinema retelling of the novel "If I Could Ride", a fantastic coming of age feature film of two teens (Eva Igo and Lexi Arnold) set in the backdrop of Windsor Vermont amongst Equestrian competitive horse ventures. This film has 77 festival wins, not to mention 11 actor awards.

In the spring of 2023, Welling finished production on “Mission From Outer Space”. This film features his 3-year old daughter, EmmaRain Welling, along with Lee Majors, Tom Sizemore and Deke Anderson. This kid-friendly film is full of action, laughs and fun.