Spike Lee
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- March 20, 1957 (age 69)
- Birthplace
- Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Biography
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American filmmaker and actor. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. Lee received numerous accolades for his work, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Peabody Awards as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award. Lee studied filmmaking at both Morehouse College and the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where he directed his student film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983), which won a Student Academy Award. He later founded the production company 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, where he has produced more than 35 films. He made his directorial debut with the comedy She's Gotta Have It (1986). He received widespread critical acclaim for the drama Do the Right Thing (1989), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He directed the historical epic Malcolm X (1992), earning the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. With the biographical crime dramedy BlacKkKlansman (2018), he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix Award. He has also written and directed films such as School Daze (1988), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), Bamboozled (2000), 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), Chi-Raq (2015), Da 5 Bloods (2020), and Highest 2 Lowest (2025). Lee has also acted in eleven of his feature films. He is also known for directing numerous documentary projects, including 4 Little Girls (1997), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. He directed the HBO series When the Levees Broke (2006), which won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program and Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. He also directed the HBO documentary If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise (2010) and the David Byrne concert film American Utopia (2020). Lee has received several honours, including the Honorary BAFTA Award in 2002, an Honorary César in 2003, the Academy Honorary Award in 2015, and the National Medal of Arts in 2023. Five of his films have been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". He has received a Gala Tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center as well as the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. His films have featured breakthrough performances from actors such as Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne, Samuel L. Jackson, Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie Perez, Delroy Lindo, John Turturro, and John David Washington. Description above from the Wikipedia article Spike Lee, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Photos
Filmography
Boner
Movie · Director
Highest 2 Lowest
Movie · Director
Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
TV · Director · 1 ep
NYC Epicenters 9/11➔2021½
TV · Director · 4 eps
Da 5 Bloods
Movie · Director
David Byrne's American Utopia
Movie · Director
New York New York
Movie · Director
3 Brothers: Radio Raheem, Eric Garner and George Floyd
Movie · Director
Land of the Free
Movie · Director
BlacKkKlansman
Movie · Director
Pass Over
Movie · Director
Be Truly Free
Movie · Director
Rodney King
Movie · Director
She's Gotta Have It
TV · Director · 19 eps
Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
Movie · Director
2 Fists Up
Movie · Director
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
Movie · Director
Chi-Raq
Movie · Director
Ray Allen/AKA- Jesus Shuttlesworth
Movie · Director
Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: Italian Imports
Movie · Assistant Director
Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: The Greatest Catch Ever
Movie · Director
Jerrod Carmichael: Love at the Store
Movie · Director
Throw Like A Girl
Movie · Director
Katt Williams: Priceless: Afterlife
Movie · Director
I Can't Breathe
Movie · Director
Amex Unstaged Pharrell Williams Live at the Apollo
Movie · Director
Do The Right Thing 25 Year Anniversary A Beats Music Experience
Movie · Director
Oldboy
Movie · Director
Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth
Movie · Director
Red Hook Summer
Movie · Director
Bad 25
Movie · Director
If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise
TV · Director · 2 eps
Kobe Doin' Work
Movie · Director
Passing Strange
Movie · Director
Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later
Movie · Director
Miracle at St. Anna
Movie · Director
Inside Man
Movie · Director
All the Invisible Children
Movie · Director
Shark
TV · Director · 1 ep
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
TV · Director · 4 eps
Jesus Children of America
Movie · Director
Miracle's Boys
TV · Director · 3 eps
She Hate Me
Movie · Director
Sucker Free City
Movie · Director
25th Hour
Movie · Director
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet
Movie · Director
Jim Brown: All-American
Movie · Director
A Huey P. Newton Story
Movie · Director
The Concert for New York City
Movie · Director
The Making of 'Bamboozled'
Movie · Director
The Original Kings of Comedy
Movie · Director
Bamboozled
Movie · Director
Bernie Mac: Live from Charlotte
Movie · Director
Summer of Sam
Movie · Director
Pavarotti & Friends 99 for Guatemala and Kosovo
Movie · Director
He Got Game
Movie · Director
John Leguizamo: Freak
Movie · Director
Pavarotti & Friends - For the Children of Liberia
Movie · Director
HIStory on Film, Volume II
Movie · Director
4 Little Girls
Movie · Director
Girl 6
Movie · Director
Get on the Bus
Movie · Director
Clockers
Movie · Director
Lumière & Company
Movie · Director
Crooklyn
Movie · Director
Malcolm X
Movie · Director
Prince and the N.P.G.: Diamonds and Pearls Video Collection
Movie · Director
Jungle Fever
Movie · Director
Mo' Better Blues
Movie · Director
Spike Lee Presents Mike Tyson
Movie · Director
Spike & Co.: Do It a Cappella
Movie · Director
Do the Right Thing
Movie · Director
School Daze
Movie · Director
She's Gotta Have It
Movie · Director
Horn of Plenty
Movie · Director
Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
Movie · Director
Sarah
Movie · Director
The Answer
Movie · Director