Spike Lee facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Spike Lee
Lee in 2025
Born	Shelton Jackson Lee (1957-03-20) March 20, 1957 (age 68) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Education	Morehouse College (BA, 1979) New York University (MFA, 1982)
Occupation	Film director producer writer actor
Years active	1977–present
Works	Filmography
Board member of	40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
Spouse(s)	Tonya Lewis ​ (m. 1993)​
Children	2
Parent(s)	Bill Lee (father)
Relatives	Joie Lee (sister) Cinqué Lee (brother) Malcolm D. Lee (cousin)
Awards	Full list

Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is a famous American filmmaker and actor. He is known for making movies that explore important topics. These topics often include how people of different backgrounds get along. He also looks at challenges faced by the Black community. His films often show how media affects our lives. He also covers city life, and other big issues. Spike Lee has won many awards for his work. These include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. He also received two Peabody Awards.

Lee studied filmmaking at Morehouse College and New York University Tisch School of the Arts. There, he directed his student film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983). This film won a Student Academy Award. He later started his own company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. Through this company, he has produced over 35 films. His first film as a director was the comedy She's Gotta Have It (1986).

He gained wide praise for the drama Do the Right Thing (1989). For this film, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He directed the historical film Malcolm X (1992). This film earned him the Berlin International Film Festival's Golden Bear award. With the true-story crime drama BlacKkKlansman (2018), he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He also received the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix Award.

Spike Lee has also written and directed many other films. These include School Daze (1988), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), and Crooklyn (1994). Other notable films are Clockers (1995), Bamboozled (2000), 25th Hour (2002), and Inside Man (2006). More recently, he directed Chi-Raq (2015), Da 5 Bloods (2020), and Highest 2 Lowest (2025). Lee has also acted in many of his own movies. He is also known for directing documentaries. These include 4 Little Girls (1997), which was nominated for an Academy Award. He directed the HBO series When the Levees Broke (2006). This series won two Emmy Awards for its directing and merit in documentary filmmaking. He also directed the HBO documentary If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise (2010). He also made the David Byrne concert film American Utopia (2020).

Lee has received many special honors. These include an Honorary BAFTA Award in 2002 and an Honorary César in 2003. He received an Academy Honorary Award in 2015. In 2023, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Five of his films have been chosen by the Library of Congress. They are kept in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." His films have helped launch the careers of actors like Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson.

Early Life and Education

Shelton Jackson Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia. His mother, Jacqueline Carroll (née Shelton), was a teacher. His father, William James Edwards Lee III, was a jazz musician. Spike has five younger siblings. Three of them, Joie, David, and Cinqué, have worked on his films. Director Malcolm D. Lee is his cousin. When he was a child, his family moved from Atlanta to Brooklyn, New York. His mother gave him the nickname "Spike" when he was young. He went to John Dewey High School in Brooklyn.

Lee attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. This is a historically Black college. There, he made his first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn. He also took film classes at Clark Atlanta University. He earned a bachelor's degree in mass communication from Morehouse in 1979. He then went to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He earned a master's degree in film and television in 1982.

David Lee, Spike's younger brother, is a photographer. He took still photos for many of Spike's early feature films. He also worked on other movies like The Preacher's Wife and American Gangster. He also worked on the TV series The Wire.

Spike Lee's Filmmaking Journey

Student Films and Early Success (1980s)

In 1983, Lee showed his first independent short film. It was called Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. Lee used this film as his final project for his master's degree. His classmates, Ang Lee and Ernest R. Dickerson, helped him make the film. This was the first student film ever shown at the Lincoln Center's New Directors New Films Festival. Lee's father, Bill Lee, created the music for it. The film won a Student Academy Award.

Lee circa 1990s

In 1985, Lee started working on his first full-length movie, She's Gotta Have It. This film was made in black-and-white. It tells the story of a young woman who is dating three different men. This movie was a big step for Lee's career. He wrote, directed, produced, acted in, and edited the film. He made it with a small budget of $175,000 in just two weeks. When it came out in 1986, it earned over $7 million. Film critics said it helped start the independent film movement of the 1980s. It also showed Black characters in new, positive ways. After this, he directed the musical drama School Daze (1988).

In 1989, Lee made one of his most important films, Do the Right Thing. This movie was about growing tension in a Brooklyn neighborhood on a very hot summer day. The cast included Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, and Rosie Perez. Film critics like Roger Ebert called it one of the best films of the year. It was later added to Ebert's list of The Great Movies. The film received two Academy Award nominations.

Becoming a Well-Known Director (1990s)

Lee at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival

In 1990, Lee worked with Denzel Washington for the first time in Mo' Better Blues. After this film, some people felt certain characters were unfair. Spike Lee explained he wanted to show the difficulties Black artists faced. His next film was Jungle Fever (1991). In this movie, Samuel L. Jackson received praise for his performance as a character dealing with serious challenges.

In 1992, Spike released his big biographical film Malcolm X. It was based on the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Denzel Washington starred as the famous civil rights leader. The film shows important parts of Malcolm X's life. These include his early life, time in prison, and his conversion to Islam. It also shows his work with the Nation of Islam and his later changes in views. The film also covers his marriage and his assassination in 1965. Critics praised the film widely. Roger Ebert called it "one of the great screen biographies." Denzel Washington was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role.

He followed Malcolm X with Crooklyn (1994) and Clockers (1995). His 1997 documentary 4 Little Girls was about the girls killed in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. This film was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2017, it was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry. He worked with Denzel Washington again on the sports drama He Got Game (1998). He then made Summer of Sam (1999), which was based on historical events.

Studio Films and New Directions (2000-2014)

Lee at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival

In 2000, Lee directed Bamboozled, a satire about a modern TV show. He then directed 25th Hour (2002), starring Edward Norton. This film received very positive reviews. Many critics called it one of the best films of its decade. It was also a financial success. He followed this with She Hate Me (2004).

In 2006, Lee directed Inside Man. This film starred Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, and Clive Owen. It was a studio heist thriller, which was a new style for Lee. The film was a big success with critics and at the box office. It earned $186 million. In 2007, the San Francisco International Film Festival honored Spike Lee with a Directing Award. In 2008, Lee directed the World War II drama Miracle at St. Anna.

In 2008, Spike Lee and director Clint Eastwood had a public discussion. They disagreed about the representation of Black soldiers in World War II films. They later resolved their disagreement through a mutual friend.

In 2012, Lee directed Red Hook Summer. In this film, he played his character Mookie from Do the Right Thing again. In 2013, Lee won The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, a very valuable award in American arts. The same year, he directed Oldboy. This was a remake of a 2003 film. He then made Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014). This film was mostly funded by people contributing money online through Kickstarter.

Recent Work and Continued Impact (2015-Present)

In 2015, Lee received an Academy Honorary Award for his contributions to film. His friends and frequent collaborators, Wesley Snipes, Denzel Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, presented him with the award. Lee also directed the story mode for the video game NBA 2K16. Later that year, Lee directed Chi-Raq. This musical drama is a modern version of an ancient Greek play. It explores challenges of community and violence in Chicago. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.

Lee and his cast promoting BlacKkKlansman at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival

Lee's 2018 film BlacKkKlansman is a true crime drama. It is set in the 1970s. It tells the true story of a Black police officer, Ron Stallworth, who joined the Ku Klux Klan. The film premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Grand Prix award there. It received widespread praise when it was released. Critics said it used history to comment on current events. In 2019, Lee won his first competitive Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. Lee's film BlacKkKlansman was nominated for many awards. It competed against Green Book for Best Picture. This reminded some people of the 1989 Oscars, when Do the Right Thing was not nominated for Best Picture.

Lee in 2024

Lee's Vietnam War film Da 5 Bloods was released on Netflix on June 12, 2020. The film stars Delroy Lindo and Chadwick Boseman. The story follows a group of older Vietnam War veterans. They return to Vietnam to find the remains of their fallen leader. They also search for treasure they buried during the war. The film received widespread critical acclaim. Critics praised its energy and ambition.

Spike Lee signed a deal with Netflix to direct and produce more movies. In February 2024, it was announced that Spike Lee directed Highest 2 Lowest. This film is a new version of the 1963 film High and Low by Akira Kurosawa. Denzel Washington starred in it. He also made the Netflix three-part documentary series Katrina: Come Hell and High Water.

Academic Career and Teaching

In 1991, Lee taught a course about filmmaking at Harvard University. In 1993, he began teaching at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. This is where he earned his master's degree. In 2002, he became the artistic director of the school. He is now a tenured professor at NYU.

Commercials

In the mid-1990s, Levi's hired Lee to direct TV commercials for their jeans. Nike also hired Lee to direct commercials. They wanted to feature Lee's character, Mars Blackmon, with athlete Michael Jordan. This was for the Air Jordan shoe line. Lee has also directed commercials for Converse, Jaguar, Taco Bell, and Ben & Jerry's.

Since 2015, Lee has been part of Capital One's "Road Trip" advertising campaign. He has starred in TV commercials with Samuel L Jackson and Charles Barkley. These commercials are shown during March Madness basketball games.

Personal Interests

Family Life

Lee met his wife, attorney Tonya Lewis Lee, in 1992. They were married a year later in New York. They have two children together.

Spike Lee takes part in the T-shirt toss at The WNBA Semifinals, at the NY Liberty vs LV Aces game on September 29, 2024

When asked if he believed in God, Lee said: "Yes. I have faith that there is a higher being. All this cannot be an accident." Lee still has an office in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. He and his wife live in Manhattan.

Sports Fan

Spike Lee is a big fan of several sports teams. He supports the New York Knicks basketball team. He also likes the New York Yankees baseball team. He is a fan of the New York Rangers ice hockey team. In English football, he supports Arsenal. A documentary in ESPN's 30 for 30 series, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, talks about Lee's interactions at Knicks games. In March 2020, Lee had a disagreement with security at Madison Square Garden. This was about which entrance to use for a Knicks game. Spike Lee has also often attended New York Liberty games. He sat courtside during the 2024 WNBA playoffs.

Lee also supports Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz. He is a fan of the Italian soccer team Inter Milan. He was the narrator in a promotional video for the club in June 2025.

Political Views

Lee speaking at a rally in support of the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders in Washington Square Park, April 2016

In October 2005, Spike Lee spoke about the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. He discussed the impact on Black Americans in New Orleans.

In May 2020, Lee released a short film called NEW YORK NEW YORK on Instagram. It was later featured on New York City's official website. Lee celebrated Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 United States Presidential election with a crowd in Brooklyn. Lee endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election. He spoke at one of her campaign rallies on October 24, 2024.

Filmography

Awards and Honors

In 1983, Lee won a Student Academy Award for his film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. He has won awards at the Black Reel Awards and the Black Movie Awards. He also won an award at the Berlin International Film Festival for Get on the Bus. He received a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman.

Lee was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay for Do the Right Thing. He was also nominated for Best Documentary for 4 Little Girls. In 2015, at age 58, Lee received an Academy Honorary Award. This award recognized him as "a champion of independent film." It also honored him as "an inspiration to young filmmakers." His frequent collaborators, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, and Wesley Snipes, presented him with the award. In 2019, Lee's film BlacKkKlansman received six Academy Award nominations. Lee himself was nominated for three awards. These included Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, which was his first competitive Academy Award.

Two of his films have competed for the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. Of these, BlacKkKlansman won the Grand Prix in 2018. Lee's films Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 4 Little Girls, She's Gotta Have It, and Bamboozled were chosen by the Library of Congress. They are preserved in the National Film Registry for their cultural, historical, or artistic importance. On May 18, 2016, Lee gave the Commencement address at The Johns Hopkins University.

He received the Ebert Director Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards for the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. In March 2024, Lee received a Board of Governor's Award from the American Society of Cinematographers. In October 2025, he accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago International Film Festival.

See also

In Spanish: Spike Lee para niños