Spike Lee

Spike Lee

Spike Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American filmmaker and actor. He was born Shelton Lee in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. His father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a school teacher. His mother dubbed him Spike, due to his tough nature. He attended school in Morehouse College in Atlanta and developed his film making skills at Clark Atlanta University. After graduating, he went to the Tisch School of Arts graduate film program. He made a controversial short, The Answer (1980), a reworking of D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) -- a ten-minute film. Lee went on to produce a 45-minute film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983), which won a student academy award. Lee's next film, "The Messenger," in 1984, was somewhat biographical. In 1986, Spike Lee made the film, She's Gotta Have It (1986), a comedy about sexual relationships. The movie was made for 175,000 dollars, and made seven million. Since then, Lee has become a well-known, intelligent, and talented film maker. His next movie was School Daze (1988), which was set in a historically black school and focused mostly on the conflict between the school and the Fraternities, of which he was a strong critic, portraying them as materialistic, irresponsible, and uncaring. Lee went on to do his landmark film, Do the Right Thing (1989), a movie specifically about his own town in Brooklyn, New York. The movie garnered an Oscar nomination, for Danny Aiello, for supporting actor. It also sparked a debate on racial relations. Lee went on to produce the jazz biopic Mo' Better Blues (1990) which showed his talent for directing and acting, and was the first of many Spike Lee films to feature Denzel Washington. His next film, Jungle Fever (1991), was about interracial dating. Lee's handling of the subject proved yet again highly controversial. Lee's next film was the self-titled biography of Malcolm X (1992), which had Denzel Washington portraying the civil rights leader. The movie was a success, and resulted in an Oscar nomination for Washington. His next films were the comparatively light, Crooklyn (1994), and the intense crime drama, Clockers (1995). In 1996, Lee directed two movies: the badly received comedy, Girl 6 (1996), and the politically pointed, Get on the Bus (1996), about a group of men going to the Million Man March. His next film, He Got Game (1998), proved to be another excursion into the collegiate world as he shows the darker side of recruiting college athletes. The movie, in limited release, yet again featured Denzel Washington. In 2000 came Bamboozled which made a mockery out of television and the way African-Americans are perceived by white America and the way African-Americans perceive themselves. The movie, however, was a resounding critical success. Lee also has produced films like New Jersey Drive (1995), Tales from the Hood (1995), and Drop Squad (1994). He also has produced and or directed movies about Huey P. Newton, Jim Brown, and has commented in many documentaries about varied subjects. Lee is an obsessive New York Knicks fan. He and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, have two children.

In Freedom
2023
Executive Producer
Seen It All
2022
Director
You Resemble Me
2022
Executive Producer
Da 5 Bloods
2020
Writer
BlacKkKlansman
2018
Writer
Be Truly Free
2017
Director
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
2015
Screenplay
Dirty Hands
2014
Executive Producer
Jerrod Carmichael: Love at the Store
2014
Director
Oldboy
2013
Director
Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth
2013
Director
Red Hook Summer
2012
Director
Bad 25
2012
Director
You're Nobody 'til Somebody Kills You
2012
Executive Producer
Kobe Doin' Work
2009
Producer
Passing Strange
2009
Director
Miracle at St. Anna
2008
Director
Genesis | Come Rain or Shine
2008
Camera Operator
Inside Man
2006
Director
All the Invisible Children
2005
Director
She Hate Me
2004
Director
Sucker Free City
2004
Director
25th Hour
2002
Producer
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet
2002
Director
Jim Brown: All-American
2002
Director
A Huey P. Newton Story
2001
Director
The Original Kings of Comedy
2000
Director
Bamboozled
2000
Director
Summer of Sam
1999
Director
He Got Game
1998
Screenplay
John Leguizamo: Freak
1998
Director
HIStory on Film, Volume II
1997
Director
4 Little Girls
1997
Director
Girl 6
1996
Director
Get on the Bus
1996
Director
Clockers
1995
Director
Lumière & Company
1995
Director
Crooklyn
1994
Director
Malcolm X
1992
Director
Jungle Fever
1991
Producer
Mo' Better Blues
1990
Writer
Do the Right Thing
1989
Screenplay
Boner

Writer
Highest 2 Lowest
2025
Executive Producer
F*ck That Guy
2024
Executive Producer
PUNTER
2024
Executive Producer
David Byrne's American Utopia
2020
Director
New York New York
2020
Director
Land of the Free
2019
Director
See You Yesterday
2019
Producer
Pass Over
2018
Producer
Tales from the Hood 2
2018
Executive Producer
The Black 14
2018
Executive Producer
Amazing Grace
2018
Producer
Time 2 Surrender
2018
Executive Producer
Cherish
2018
Executive Producer
Rodney King
2017
Director
Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
2016
Director
2 Fists Up
2016
Director
The Girl Is in Trouble
2015
Executive Producer
Chi-Raq
2015
Writer
Stop
2015
Thanks
Katt Williams: Priceless: Afterlife
2014
Director
Pariah
2011
Executive Producer
Saint John of Las Vegas
2010
Executive Producer
Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later
2009
Director
Jesus Children of America
2005
Director
3 A.M.
2001
Producer
Come Rain or Come Shine
2001
Director of Photography
The Concert for New York City
2001
Director
The Making of 'Bamboozled'
2001
Director
Love & Basketball
2000
Producer
One Morning All Over the World
2000
Director
Bernie Mac: Live from Charlotte
2000
Director
Pavarotti & Friends 99 for Guatemala and Kosovo
1999
Director
Pavarotti & Friends - For the Children of Liberia
1998
Director
Tales from the Hood
1995
Executive Producer
Drop Squad
1994
Executive Producer
Prince and the N.P.G.: Diamonds and Pearls Video Collection
1992
Director
Suspect
1991
Thanks
School Daze
1988
Writer
She's Gotta Have It
1986
Director
Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
1983
Director
Prince of Cats

Director
Nervous Energy
2025
Executive Producer
In Between Storms
2025
Executive Producer
How I Learned to Die
2025
Executive Producer
Talk Me
2025
Executive Producer
Be A Part of It
2024
Self
A Daughter's Tribute to Her Father: Souleymane Cissé
2022
Self
Sidney
2022
Self
Denzel Washington: A Model American
2022
Self
Son of the South
2021
Executive Producer
Tales from the Hood 3
2020
Executive Producer
3 Brothers - Radio Raheem, Eric Garner and George Floyd
2020
Director
Nigerian Prince
2018
Executive Producer
Axé: Music of a People
2017
Self (archive footage)
Plankton Salesmen
2017
Self (archive footage)
Touched with Fire
2016
Executive Producer
Ray Allen/AKA- Jesus Shuttlesworth
2015
Director
Champs
2015
Self
French Cinema Mon Amour
2015
Self
Evolution of a Criminal
2014
Executive Producer
One Night
2012
Presenter
Brooklyn Boheme
2012
Self
Yo! The Story of ‘Yo! MTV Raps’
2012
Self
Doubles with Slight Pepper
2011
Executive Producer
Guest
2011
Self
Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks
2010
Self
40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight
2008
Self
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
2005
Presenter
Street Fight
2005
Self
By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X'
2005
Self
How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)
2005
Good Fences
2003
Executive Producer
The Evolution of an American Filmmaker
2003
Self
Home Invaders
2001
Executive Producer
The Best Man
1999
Producer
New Jersey Drive
1995
Executive Producer
Michael Jordan to the Max
2000
Self
When We Were Kings
1996
Self
The Last Party
1993
Self
MTV's 10th Anniversary Special
1991
Self
Sous les marches du palais
1991
Self
Lonely in America
1990
Spike Lee (Newsstand Customer) (uncredited)
Number 4

Self
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
2025
Self (archive footage)
Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music
2025
Self
Samuel L. Jackson: Did I Stutter?
2023
self
Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist
2021
Self
A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks
2021
Self
Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn
2020
Self (archive footage)
Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists
2018
Self
Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1
2018
Self
Birth of a Movement
2017
Self
We the People: From Crispus Attucks to President Barack Obama
2014
Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee
2014
Self
A Man's Story
2011
Self
On the Shoulders of Giants
2011
Four Days in October
2010
Self (archive footage)
PoliWood
2009
Self
Pixote In Memoriam
2007
Self
Lights, Action, Music
2007
Self
Life O' The Party: On the Road with Prince and the New Power Generation
2005
Self
Through the Fire
2005
Best Sellers or: Peter Sellers and 'Dr. Strangelove'
2004
Self
No Fighting in the War Room Or: 'Dr Strangelove' and the Nuclear Threat
2004
Self
Five Directors On The Battle of Algiers
2004
Self
It's Black Entertainment
2002
Self
The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family'
2002
Self
Lisa Picard Is Famous
2000
Spike Lee
The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money
1996
Self
The Universal Story
1996
Self (archive footage)
Below the Rim
1995
A Century of Cinema
1994
Self
Hoop Dreams
1994
Self
Seven Songs for Malcolm X
1993
Farewell, Babylon!
1993
Self
Branford Marsalis: Steep
1991
Self
Spike Lee & Company: Do It a Cappella
1990
Self
First Works
1989
Self
Decade
1989
Self
Public Enemy: Fight the Power... Live!
1989
Horn of Plenty
1986
Director
The Answer
1980
Director