Spike Lee

Known for: Directing
Born: March 20, 1957, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Movies: 167

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).

Upcoming Spike Lee Movies

Boner

Release date TBA

Best-Known Movies

7.5

BlacKkKlansman

2018

7.4

Inside Man

2006

7.3

25th Hour

2002

5.9

Oldboy

2013

7.8

Do the Right Thing

1989

7.5

Malcolm X

1992

6.4

Da 5 Bloods

2020

6.8

He Got Game

1998

5.5

See You Yesterday

2019

6.5

Summer of Sam

1999

Filmography

2026	Sophie Marceau, à voix haute	Self (archive footage)
2026	AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Eddie Murphy	Self
2025	Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music	Self (archive footage)
2024	13 Steps - Die unglaubliche Karriere von Edwin Moses
2023	Samuel L. Jackson: Did I Stutter?	self
2023	The Moviemakers: Spike Lee	Self
2022	Denzel Washington: A Model American	Self
2022	Gold Blooded	Self
2022	Sidney	Self
2022	A Daughter's Tribute to Her Father: Souleymane Cissé	Self
2021	A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks	Self
2021	Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist	Self
2018	Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists	Self
2018	Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1	Self
2017	Plankton Salesmen	Self (archive footage)
2017	Be Truly Free	Narrator (voice)
2017	Birth of a Movement	Self
2016	Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall	Self
2015	Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: The Greatest Catch Ever	self
2015	French Cinema Mon Amour	Self
2015	Director Spike Lee's New York City	Self
2015	Champs	Self
2015	Ray Allen/AKA- Jesus Shuttlesworth
2014	Do The Right Thing 25 Year Anniversary A Beats Music Experience	self
2014	Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee	Self
2014	We the People: From Crispus Attucks to President Barack Obama	Self
2012	Bad 25	Self
2012	Red Hook Summer	Mr. Mookie
2012	Yo! The Story of ‘Yo! MTV Raps’	Self
2012	Brooklyn Boheme	Self
2011	A Man's Story	Self
2011	Guest	Self
2011	On the Shoulders of Giants
2010	Four Days in October	Self (archive footage)
2010	Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks	Self
2009	PoliWood	Self
2009	Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later	Self
2009	Kobe Doin' Work	Self
2008	40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight	Self
2008	Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans & the Movies
2007	Pixote In Memoriam	Self
2007	Lights, Action, Music	Self
2005	Life O' The Party: On the Road with Prince and the New Power Generation	Self
2005	Street Fight	Self
2005	How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)
2005	By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X'	Self
2005	Through the Fire
2004	Best Sellers or: Peter Sellers and 'Dr. Strangelove'	Self
2004	No Fighting in the War Room Or: 'Dr Strangelove' and the Nuclear Threat	Self
2004	Five Directors On The Battle of Algiers	Self
2003	The Evolution of an American Filmmaker	Self
2002	New York at the Movies	Self
2002	It's Black Entertainment	Self
2002	The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family'	Self
2001	3 A.M.	Filmmaker
2001	The Making of 'Bamboozled'	Self
2000	Lisa Picard Is Famous	Spike Lee
2000	Michael Jordan to the Max	Self
1999	Summer of Sam	John Jeffries
1997	4 Little Girls	Interviewer (voice) (uncredited)
1996	The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money	Self
1996	When We Were Kings	Self
1996	The Universal Story	Self (archive footage)
1996	Girl 6	Jimmy
1995	Lumière & Company	Self (segment "Sarah Moon")
1995	Clockers	Chucky
1995	Below the Rim
1994	Drop Squad	Himself
1994	Hoop Dreams	Self
1994	Crooklyn	Snuffy
1994	A Century of Cinema	Self
1993	Seven Songs for Malcolm X
1993	Farewell, Babylon!	Self
1993	The Last Party	Self
1992	Malcolm X	Shorty
1992	Our Hollywood Education	Self
1991	Sous les marches du palais	Self
1991	Jungle Fever	Cyrus
1991	MTV's 10th Anniversary Special	Self
1991	Branford Marsalis: Steep	Self
1990	Lonely in America	Spike Lee (Newsstand Customer) (uncredited)
1990	Mo' Better Blues	Giant
1990	Spike & Co.: Do It a Cappella
1990	Spike & Co. Do It a-Cappella	Self
1989	Decade	Self
1989	Making 'Do the Right Thing'	Self
1989	First Works	Self
1989	Do the Right Thing	Mookie
1989	Public Enemy: Fight the Power... Live!
1988	School Daze	Darrell 'Half-Pint' Dunlap
1986	She's Gotta Have It	Mars Blackmon

Directing, Writing & Producing

2026	APART	Writer
2025	Highest 2 Lowest	Director
2020	David Byrne's American Utopia	Director, Producer
2020	Da 5 Bloods	Writer, Producer, Director
2020	3 Brothers: Radio Raheem, Eric Garner and George Floyd	Director
2020	New York New York	Director
2019	See You Yesterday	Producer
2019	Land of the Free	Director
2018	Amazing Grace	Producer
2018	BlacKkKlansman	Writer, Director, Producer
2018	Pass Over	Producer, Director
2017	Rodney King	Director, Producer
2017	Be Truly Free	Director
2016	2 Fists Up	Director, Producer
2016	Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall	Director
2015	Chi-Raq	Writer, Director, Producer
2015	Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: The Greatest Catch Ever	Director
2015	Da Sweet Blood of Jesus	Screenplay, Director, Producer
2015	Ray Allen/AKA- Jesus Shuttlesworth	Director
2014	Throw Like A Girl	Director
2014	Jerrod Carmichael: Love at the Store	Director
2014	Do The Right Thing 25 Year Anniversary A Beats Music Experience	Director
2014	Katt Williams: Priceless: Afterlife	Director, Producer
2014	Amex Unstaged Pharrell Williams Live at the Apollo	Director
2014	I Can't Breathe	Director, Writer
2013	Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth	Director
2013	Oldboy	Director
2012	Bad 25	Director
2012	Red Hook Summer	Director, Screenplay, Producer
2009	Passing Strange	Director
2009	Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later	Director
2009	Kobe Doin' Work	Producer, Director
2008	Miracle at St. Anna	Director, Producer
2006	Inside Man	Director
2006	All the Invisible Children	Director, Producer
2005	Jesus Children of America	Director
2004	Sucker Free City	Director
2004	She Hate Me	Director, Screenplay, Producer
2002	25th Hour	Producer, Director
2002	Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet	Director, Producer
2002	Jim Brown: All-American	Director, Producer
2001	The Concert for New York City	Director
2001	Come Rain or Come Shine	Director
2001	3 A.M.	Producer
2001	A Huey P. Newton Story	Director
2001	The Making of 'Bamboozled'	Director
2000	Bamboozled	Director, Screenplay, Producer
2000	The Original Kings of Comedy	Director, Producer
2000	Bernie Mac: Live from Charlotte	Director
2000	Love & Basketball	Producer
1999	The Best Man	Producer
1999	Summer of Sam	Director, Writer, Producer
1999	Pavarotti & Friends 99 for Guatemala and Kosovo	Director
1998	John Leguizamo: Freak	Director
1998	Pavarotti & Friends - For the Children of Liberia	Director
1998	He Got Game	Screenplay, Producer, Director
1997	4 Little Girls	Director, Producer, Writer
1997	HIStory on Film, Volume II	Director
1996	Get on the Bus	Director
1996	Girl 6	Director, Producer
1995	Lumière & Company	Director
1995	Clockers	Director, Screenplay, Producer
1994	Crooklyn	Director, Producer, Screenplay
1992	Malcolm X	Director, Screenplay, Producer
1992	Prince and the N.P.G.: Diamonds and Pearls Video Collection	Director
1991	Jungle Fever	Producer, Director, Writer
1990	Spike Lee Presents Mike Tyson	Director
1990	Mo' Better Blues	Writer, Director, Producer
1990	Spike & Co.: Do It a Cappella	Director
1989	Do the Right Thing	Screenplay, Producer, Director
1988	School Daze	Writer, Director, Producer
1986	Horn of Plenty	Director, Writer
1986	She's Gotta Have It	Director, Writer, Producer
1983	Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads	Director, Writer, Producer
1981	Sarah	Director
1980	The Answer	Director

Data from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.