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.

Known For: Directing

Born: Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 1957-03-20

Died: null

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1986	She's Gotta Have It	Mars Blackmon	67
2	1988	School Daze	Darrell 'Half-Pint' Dunlap	57
3	1989	Do the Right Thing	Mookie	78
4	1989	Making 'Do the Right Thing'	Self	67
5	1990	Mo' Better Blues	Giant	65
6	1990	Lonely in America	Spike Lee	40
7	1991	MTV's 10th Anniversary Special	Self	0
8	1991	Jungle Fever	Cyrus	64
9	1991	Sous les marches du palais	Self	0
10	1992	Malcolm X	Shorty	75
11	1993	The Last Party	Self	50
12	1994	Crooklyn	Snuffy	68
13	1996	Girl 6	Jimmy	50
14	1996	When We Were Kings	Self	77
15	1997	4 Little Girls	Interviewer (voice) (uncredited)	73
16	2000	Michael Jordan to the Max	Self	73
17	2000	Lisa Picard Is Famous	Spike Lee	51
18	2001	3 A.M.	Filmmaker	55
19	2002	New York at the Movies	Self	100
20	2003	The Evolution of an American Filmmaker	Self	73
21	2005	By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X'	Self	50
22	2005	How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)		70
23	2005	Street Fight	Self	70
24	2005	Life O' The Party: On the Road with Prince and the New Power Generation	Self	0
25	2008	40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight	Self	0
26	2010	Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks	Self	77
27	2011	Guest	Self	60
28	2012	Brooklyn Boheme	Self	68
29	2012	Yo! The Story of ‘Yo! MTV Raps’	Self	50
30	2012	Red Hook Summer	Mr. Mookie	55
31	2012	Bad 25	Self	73
32	2015	Champs	Self	65
33	2015	French Cinema Mon Amour	Self	5
34	2017	Axé: Music of a People	Self (archive footage)	79
35	2017	Birth of a Movement	Self	64
36	2017	Be Truly Free	Narrator (voice)	0
37	2017	Plankton Salesmen	Self (archive footage)	0
38	2020	Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn	Self (archive footage)	64
39	2022	Seen It All	Mars Blackmon	0
40	2022	A Daughter's Tribute to Her Father: Souleymane Cissé	Self	0
41	2022	Sidney	Self	75
42		Do The Right Thing 25 Year Anniversary A Beats Music Experience	Spike Lee	0
43	2022	Denzel Washington: A Model American	Self	78
44	2024	Be A Part of It	Self	0
45		Number 4	Self	0
46	1989	Public Enemy: Fight the Power... Live!		0
47	1989	First Works	Self	0
48	1989	Decade	Self	70
49	1990	Spike Lee & Company: Do It a Cappella	Self	100
50	1991	Branford Marsalis: Steep	Self	0
51	1992	Our Hollywood Education	Self	0
52	1993	Farewell, Babylon!	Self	0
53	1993	Seven Songs for Malcolm X		0
54	1994	A Century of Cinema	Self	80
55	1994	Hoop Dreams	Self	76
56	1994	Drop Squad	Himself	28
57	1995	Below the Rim		80
58	1995	Clockers	Chucky	67
59	1996	The Universal Story	Self (archive footage)	77
60	1996	The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money	Self	57
61	1999	Summer of Sam	John Jeffries	65
62	2001	The Making of 'Bamboozled'	Self	10
63	2002	The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family'	Self	100
64	2002	It's Black Entertainment	Self	80
65	2004	Five Directors On The Battle of Algiers	Self	100
66	2004	Best Sellers or: Peter Sellers and 'Dr. Strangelove'	Self	58
67	2004	No Fighting in the War Room Or: 'Dr Strangelove' and the Nuclear Threat	Self	50
68	2005	Through the Fire		69
69	2007	Lights, Action, Music	Self	70
70	2007	Pixote In Memoriam	Self	70
71	2008	Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans & the Movies		70
72	2009	Kobe Doin' Work	Self	65
73	2009	Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later	Self	70
74	2009	PoliWood	Self	65
75	2010	Four Days in October	Self (archive footage)	65
76	2011	On the Shoulders of Giants		63
77	2011	A Man's Story	Self	69
78	2014	We the People: From Crispus Attucks to President Barack Obama		0
79	2014	Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee	Self	15
80	2015	Ray Allen/AKA- Jesus Shuttlesworth		0
81	2015	Director Spike Lee's New York City	Self	0
82	2016	Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall	Self	70
83	2018	Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1	Self	68
84	2018	Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists	Self	71
85	2021	Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist	Self	82
86	2021	A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks	Self	68
87	2023	Samuel L. Jackson: Did I Stutter?	self	90
88		Megadoc	Self	0
89	2025	BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions	Self (archive footage)	62
90	2025	Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music	Self	79

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1953	The Oscars	Self	71
2	1971	Great Performances	Self	53
3	1973	The American Film Institute Salute to ...	Self	63
4	1975	Saturday Night Live	Mars Blackmon	70
5	1975	Saturday Night Live	Self (uncredited)	70
6	1988	Yo! MTV Raps	Self	75
7	1990	In Living Color		76
8	1992	Ghostwriter	Special Agent Pete (archive footage)	68
9	1992	Ghostwriter	Special Agent Pete	68
10	1994	Inside the Actors Studio	Self	75
11	1996	The Daily Show	Self	64
12	1997	The Chris Rock Show		44
13	1997	The View	Self	45
14	1999	The Early Show	Self	57
15	2002	Johnny Vaughan Tonight	Self	50
16	2003	Real Time with Bill Maher	Self	60
17	2005	It's the Shoes	Self	0
18	2010	Who Do You Think You Are?	Self	66
19	2014	The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon	Self	59
20	2015	Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter	Self	57
21	2015	The Late Show with Stephen Colbert	Self	64
22	2017	She's Gotta Have It	Drum Major	64
23	2018	Basketball: A Love Story	Self (archive footage)	70
24	2019	Desus & Mero	Self - Illustrious Guest	51
25	2019	Tamron Hall	Self - Guest	51
26	2020	Dear...	Self	50
27	2021	Pretend It's a City	Self	74
28	2021	Variety Studio: Directors on Directors	Self	0
29	2021	This Is Pop	Self (archive footage)	58
30	2022	They Call Me Magic	Self	72

Spike Lee

Film

Television