Spike Lee
Known for: Directing
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
Series
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Self - Guest
2015
Series
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Self
2014
Series
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Self - Guest
2014
Series
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Self - Guest
2014
Series
The Daily Show
Self - Guest
1996
Series
Late Show with David Letterman
Self - Guest
1993
Series
Saturday Night Live
Mars Blackmon
1975
Series
Saturday Night Live
Self (uncredited)
1975
Series
Real Time with Bill Maher
Self
2003
Series
The View
Self
1997
Series
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Self - Guest
2003
Series
Great Performances
Self
1971
Series
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Self - Guest
1993
Series
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Self
2003
Series
Desus & Mero
Self - Illustrious Guest
2019
Series
Tamron Hall
Self - Guest
2019
Series
The Oscars
Self
1953
Series
The Oscars
Self - Audience Member
1953
Series
Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter
Self
2015
Series
Basketball: A Love Story
Self (archive footage)
2018
Series
In Living Color
1990
Series
Who Do You Think You Are?
Self
2010
Series
Mr. Scorsese
Self
2025
Series
Dear...
Self
2020
Series
The Chris Rock Show
Self
1997
Film
Malcolm X
Shorty
1992
Series
Yo! MTV Raps
Self
1988
Series
Pretend It's a City
Self
2021
Series
Ghostwriter
Special Agent Pete (archive footage)
1992
Series
Ghostwriter
Special Agent Pete
1992
Film
Do the Right Thing
Mookie
1989
Series
Hollywood Black
Self (archive footage)
2024
Series
She's Gotta Have It
Drum Major
2017
Series
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
Self
1973
Series
This Is Pop
Self (archive footage)
2021
Series
Directors on Directors
Self
2021
Film
Clockers
Chucky
1995
Series
The Early Show
Self
1999
Film
Jungle Fever
Cyrus
1991
Series
They Call Me Magic
Self
2022
Film
AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Eddie Murphy
Self
2026
Film
Pixote In Memoriam
Self
2007
Film
Summer of Sam
John Jeffries
1999
Film
School Daze
Darrell 'Half-Pint' Dunlap
1988
Film
Plankton Salesmen
Self (archive footage)
2017
Film
Girl 6
Jimmy
1996
Film
Sidney
Self
2022
Film
Bad 25
Self
2012
Film
Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music
Self (archive footage)
2025
Film
Crooklyn
Snuffy
1994
Johnny Vaughan Tonight
Self
2002
Film
Life's Essentials with Ruby Dee
Self
2014
Film
Mo' Better Blues
Giant
1990
Film
Guest
Self
2011
Film
She's Gotta Have It
Mars Blackmon
1986
Film
Lumière & Company
Self (segment "Sarah Moon")
1995
Film
Public Enemy: Fight the Power... Live!
1989
Film
Yo! The Story of ‘Yo! MTV Raps’
Self
2012
Film
Denzel Washington: A Model American
Self
2022
New York at the Movies
Self
2002
Film
When We Were Kings
Self
1996
Making 'Do the Right Thing'
Self
1989
Film
Samuel L. Jackson: Did I Stutter?
self
2023
Film
On the Shoulders of Giants
2011
Film
Farewell, Babylon!
Self
1993
Film
Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
Self
2016
Film
Michael Jordan to the Max
Self
2000
Film
NBA 2K16’s Livin’ Da Dream: A Spike Lee Joint
Reporter (voice)
2015
Film
A Century of Cinema
Self
1994
Film
Hoop Dreams
Self
1994
Film
It's Black Entertainment
Self
2002
Film
MTV's 10th Anniversary Special
Self
1991
Film
First Works
Self
1989
It's the Shoes
Self
2005
Film
Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later
Self
2009
Film
French Cinema Mon Amour
Self
2015
Film
Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1
Self
2018
Film
Spike & Co.: Do It a Cappella
1990
Film
PoliWood
Self
2009
Film
A Man's Story
Self
2011
Film
Red Hook Summer
Mr. Mookie
2012
Director Spike Lee's New York City
Self
2015
Film
Drop Squad
Himself
1994
Film
Branford Marsalis: Steep
Self
1991
Film
By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X'
Self
2005
Film
Birth of a Movement
Self
2017
Film
The Evolution of an American Filmmaker
Self
2003
Film
A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks
Self
2021
Film
3 A.M.
Filmmaker
2001
Film
Spike & Co. Do It a-Cappella
Self
1990
Film
The Universal Story
Self (archive footage)
1996
Film
Gold Blooded
Self
2022
Series
Inside the Actors Studio
Self
1994
Film
The Last Party
Self
1993
Film
A Daughter's Tribute to Her Father: Souleymane Cissé
Self
2022
Film
4 Little Girls
Interviewer (voice) (uncredited)
1997
Film
The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money
Self
1996
Film
Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists
Self
2018
Film
Lisa Picard Is Famous
Spike Lee
2000
Film
No Fighting in the War Room Or: 'Dr Strangelove' and the Nuclear Threat
Self
2004
Film
Kobe Doin' Work
Self
2009
Film
The Making of 'Bamboozled'
Self
2001
Film
Sous les marches du palais
Self
1991
Film
Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist
Self
2021
Film
Through the Fire
2005
Film
Seven Songs for Malcolm X
1993
Film
Ray Allen/AKA- Jesus Shuttlesworth
2015
Film
Best Sellers or: Peter Sellers and 'Dr. Strangelove'
Self
2004
Film
Champs
Self
2015
Film
Street Fight
Self
2005
Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans & the Movies
2008
Our Hollywood Education
Self
1992
Film
Life O' The Party: On the Road with Prince and the New Power Generation
Self
2005
Film
The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family'
Self
2002
Film
Brooklyn Boheme
Self
2012
Film
40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight
Self
2008
Film
Be Truly Free
Narrator (voice)
2017
Film
Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: The Greatest Catch Ever
self
2015
Film
How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)
2005
Film
Decade
Self
1989
Film
Five Directors On The Battle of Algiers
Self
2004
Film
Do The Right Thing 25 Year Anniversary A Beats Music Experience
self
2014
Film
Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks
Self
2010
Film
Four Days in October
Self (archive footage)
2010
Film
Below the Rim
1995
Film
Lights, Action, Music
Self
2007
Film
Lonely in America
Spike Lee (Newsstand Customer) (uncredited)
1990
Film
The Moviemakers: Spike Lee
Self
2023
Film
We the People: From Crispus Attucks to President Barack Obama
2014