Spike Lee
Directing • Born 1957-03-20
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.
Filmography
120 credits
Do the Right Thing
Movie • 1989
Mookie
Jungle Fever
Movie • 1991
Cyrus
When We Were Kings
Movie • 1996
Self
Malcolm X
Movie • 1992
Shorty
Lonely in America
Movie • 1990
Spike Lee (Newsstand Customer) (uncredited)
Crooklyn
Movie • 1994
Snuffy
She's Gotta Have It
Movie • 1986
Mars Blackmon
Street Fight
Movie • 2005
Self
Mo' Better Blues
Movie • 1990
Giant
Girl 6
Movie • 1996
Jimmy
Brooklyn Boheme
Movie • 2012
Self
Bad 25
Movie • 2012
Self
The Evolution of an American Filmmaker
Movie • 2003
Self
New York at the Movies
Movie • 2002
Self
A Daughter's Tribute to Her Father: Souleymane Cissé
Movie • 2022
Self
Be Truly Free
Movie • 2017
Narrator (voice)
Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks
Movie • 2010
Self
Sidney
Movie • 2022
Self
Guest
Movie • 2011
Self
By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X'
Movie • 2005
Self
School Daze
Movie • 1988
Darrell 'Half-Pint' Dunlap
The Last Party
Movie • 1993
Self
MTV's 10th Anniversary Special
Movie • 1991
Self
Yo! The Story of ‘Yo! MTV Raps’
Movie • 2012
Self
40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight
Movie • 2008
Self
Do The Right Thing 25 Year Anniversary A Beats Music Experience
Movie • 2014
self
Sous les marches du palais
Movie • 1991
Self
Denzel Washington: A Model American
Movie • 2022
Self
Champs
Movie • 2015
Self
Red Hook Summer
Movie • 2012
Mr. Mookie
Michael Jordan to the Max
Movie • 2000
Self
French Cinema Mon Amour
Movie • 2015
Self
3 A.M.
Movie • 2001
Filmmaker
4 Little Girls
Movie • 1997
Interviewer (voice) (uncredited)
How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)
Movie • 2005
Making 'Do the Right Thing'
Movie • 1989
Self
Birth of a Movement
Movie • 2017
Self
Life O' The Party: On the Road with Prince and the New Power Generation
Movie • 2005
Self
Lisa Picard Is Famous
Movie • 2000
Spike Lee
The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money
Movie • 1996
Self
Clockers
Movie • 1995
Chucky
Best Sellers or: Peter Sellers and 'Dr. Strangelove'
Movie • 2004
Self
Pixote In Memoriam
Movie • 2007
Self
Seven Songs for Malcolm X
Movie • 1993
A Man's Story
Movie • 2011
Self
First Works
Movie • 1989
Self
Summer of Sam
Movie • 1999
John Jeffries
Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists
Movie • 2018
Self
PoliWood
Movie • 2009
Self
It's Black Entertainment
Movie • 2002
Self
Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later
Movie • 2009
Self
No Fighting in the War Room Or: 'Dr Strangelove' and the Nuclear Threat
Movie • 2004
Self
The Making of 'Bamboozled'
Movie • 2001
Self
Kobe Doin' Work
Movie • 2009
Self
Decade
Movie • 1989
Self
Spike & Co. Do It a-Cappella
Movie • 1990
Self
Farewell, Babylon!
Movie • 1993
Self
Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1
Movie • 2018
Self
We the People: From Crispus Attucks to President Barack Obama
Movie • 2014
Below the Rim
Movie • 1995
Director Spike Lee's New York City
Movie • 2015
Self
Through the Fire
Movie • 2005
Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans & the Movies
Movie • 2008
Lights, Action, Music
Movie • 2007
Self
Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee
Movie • 2014
Self
Branford Marsalis: Steep
Movie • 1991
Self
The Universal Story
Movie • 1996
Self (archive footage)
On the Shoulders of Giants
Movie • 2011
Our Hollywood Education
Movie • 1992
Self
Hoop Dreams
Movie • 1994
Self
A Century of Cinema
Movie • 1994
Self
Ray Allen/AKA- Jesus Shuttlesworth
Movie • 2015
The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family'
Movie • 2002
Self
Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist
Movie • 2021
Self
A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks
Movie • 2021
Self
Public Enemy: Fight the Power... Live!
Movie • 1989
Five Directors On The Battle of Algiers
Movie • 2004
Self
Four Days in October
Movie • 2010
Self (archive footage)
Samuel L. Jackson: Did I Stutter?
Movie • 2023
self
Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
Movie • 2016
Self
Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music
Movie • 2025
Self (archive footage)
Drop Squad
Movie • 1994
Himself
Gold Blooded
Movie • 2022
Self
Plankton Salesmen
Movie • 2017
Self (archive footage)
Lumière & Company
Movie • 1995
Self (segment "Sarah Moon")
Inside the Actors Studio
TV • 1994
Self
Pretend It's a City
TV • 2021
Self
The View
TV • 1997
Self
Ghostwriter
TV • 1992
Special Agent Pete (archive footage)
Tamron Hall
TV • 2019
Self - Guest
Ghostwriter
TV • 1992
Special Agent Pete
The Early Show
TV • 1999
Self
In Living Color
TV • 1990
Real Time with Bill Maher
TV • 2003
Self
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
TV • 2015
Self
Dear...
TV • 2020
Self
Johnny Vaughan Tonight
TV • 2002
Self
Basketball: A Love Story
TV • 2018
Self (archive footage)
Who Do You Think You Are?
TV • 2010
Self
This Is Pop
TV • 2021
Self (archive footage)
Saturday Night Live
TV • 1975
Mars Blackmon
The Daily Show
TV • 1996
Self
Saturday Night Live
TV • 1975
Self (uncredited)
The Chris Rock Show
TV • 1997
Self
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
TV • 2014
Self
They Call Me Magic
TV • 2022
Self
Yo! MTV Raps
TV • 1988
Self
It's the Shoes
TV • 2005
Self
Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter
TV • 2015
Self
Desus & Mero
TV • 2019
Self - Illustrious Guest
She's Gotta Have It
TV • 2017
Drum Major
The Oscars
TV • 1953
Self
Great Performances
TV • 1971
Self
Directors on Directors
TV • 2021
Self
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
TV • 1973
Self
Mr. Scorsese
TV • 2025
Self
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
TV • 2003
Self - Guest
Late Night with Seth Meyers
TV • 2014
Self - Guest
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
TV • 2003
Self
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
TV • 2014
Self - Guest