---
name: "Spike Lee"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/spike-lee"
fi1m_id: "spike-lee"
imdb_id: "nm0000490"
tmdb_id: 5281
wikidata_id: "Q51566"
roles: ["Director","Producer","Writer"]
born: "20 March 1957"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 12
average_fi1m_score: 75
average_as: "director"
average_over: 8
updated: "2026-09-30T20:01:02.365879+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Spike Lee

## Identity

Spike Lee

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/spike-lee
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** spike-lee
- **IMDb ID:** nm0000490
- **TMDB ID:** 5281
- **Wikidata ID:** Q51566
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Lee, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q51566, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000490/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5281

Director and producer. Born 20 March 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer, Writer
- **Born:** 20 March 1957, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- **Active:** 1986–present
- **Also known as:**  Shelton Jackson Lee
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 12: 8 directing, 1 producing, 3 other
- **Frequently works with:** [Delroy Lindo](https://film.one/person/delroy-lindo.md), [Jon Kilik](https://film.one/person/jon-kilik.md), [Kevin Willmott](https://film.one/person/kevin-willmott.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 4 nominated)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 75, as director, over 8 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1980s 80 (2), 1990s 82 (4), 2000s 68 (2), 2010s 78 (1), 2020s 73 (3)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 78 to 77 across 7 titles
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 5 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 0 of 3 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 6, Crime 3, Comedy 2, History 2, Mystery 2, Music 1
- **Screen time:** 16 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $199m across 5 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Lee, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q51566, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000490/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5281

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Do the Right Thing*](https://film.one/film/do-the-right-thing.md) (93), [*Clockers*](https://film.one/film/clockers.md) (74)
- **HBO Max:** [*Hoop Dreams*](https://film.one/film/hoop-dreams.md) (92), [*When We Were Kings*](https://film.one/film/when-we-were-kings.md) (83)
- **Netflix:** [*Da 5 Bloods*](https://film.one/film/da-5-bloods.md) (72), [*She's Gotta Have It*](https://film.one/film/shes-gotta-have-it.md) (68)
- **Pluto TV:** [*Passing Strange*](https://film.one/film/passing-strange.md) (80)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Spike Lee

> Spike Lee gives actors time to make difficult people worth watching. We value his energy and his curiosity about black American lives, though *Malcolm X* shows how readily his patience can become excessive reverence.

In *Malcolm X* (1992), Spike Lee lets the young Malcolm’s criminal life be enjoyable to watch. Denzel Washington plays him as someone worth attending to now, without asking us to wait for the important man he will become. We were unsettled by how readily we accepted his choices, because Lee gives the appeal of that life enough energy for us to feel it. The performance is allowed to develop without every scene explaining what comes next.

Lee’s feature debut was *She’s Gotta Have It* (1986), followed by the breakthrough of *Do the Right Thing* (1989). He wrote, directed and acted in both; the latter examines racial tensions in Brooklyn on a hot day. Black American experience and urban life in New York recur across his films, alongside such devices as direct-to-camera address and archival footage. With *Malcolm X*, the scale grew to a 202-minute biography.

Cinematographer Ernest R. Dickerson gives the early criminal world of *Malcolm X* an immediacy that the more formal passages struggle to sustain. Wynn Thomas’s production design makes the surroundings worth attending to even while Washington holds our interest. Lee lets these scenes be pleasurable, and the film is better for it.

The difficulty comes when he grows too careful with his subject. Barry Alexander Brown’s editing keeps the account clear, but several scenes continue after they have made their point. Terence Blanchard’s music adds weight to Lee’s solemnity when Washington has already given us enough to consider. We sometimes wanted the scenes cut shorter and the score to ease off.

Lee has since moved through drama, satire, heist films and documentaries, with *BlacKkKlansman* (2018) and the Vietnam War drama *Da 5 Bloods* (2020) among the later work. That variety is a reason not to take the solemn stretches of *Malcolm X* as the whole of what he does. Begin there for his work with actors, but allow a long evening.

## Biography

Spike Lee is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He was born Shelton Jackson Lee on 20 March 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia. He studied at Morehouse College and the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where his student film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983) won a Student Academy Award. He founded the production company 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks.

Lee made his feature directorial debut with She's Gotta Have It (1986). His subsequent films include Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992), in which he also wrote the screenplay, produced and appeared as Shorty, 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods (2020). He appeared as himself in the documentary Hoop Dreams (1994).

Lee won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. He has received additional Academy Award nominations and other honours including a Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for Malcolm X.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, blackpast.org.*

## On Fi1m (12)

### Directed (8) — the average rests on these

- *Da 5 Bloods* (2020), Fi1m 72, Producer, Writer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/da-5-bloods.md)
- *BlacKkKlansman* (2018), Fi1m 78, Director, Producer, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/blackkklansman.md)
- *Passing Strange* (2009), Fi1m 80, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/passing-strange.md)
- *Shark* (2006), Fi1m 55, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/shark.md)
- *Clockers* (1995), Fi1m 74, as Chucky — [page](https://film.one/film/clockers.md)
- *Malcolm X* (1992), Fi1m 79, as Shorty — [page](https://film.one/film/malcolm-x.md)
- *Do the Right Thing* (1989), Fi1m 93, as Mookie — [page](https://film.one/film/do-the-right-thing.md)
- *She's Gotta Have It* (1986), Fi1m 68, as Mars Blackmon — [page](https://film.one/film/shes-gotta-have-it.md)

### Produced (1)

- *The Voice of Hind Rajab* (2025), Fi1m 81, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-voice-of-hind-rajab.md)

### Also credited (3) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *The Piano Lesson* (2024), Fi1m 65, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/the-piano-lesson.md)
- *When We Were Kings* (1996), Fi1m 83, as Self — [page](https://film.one/film/when-we-were-kings.md)
- *Hoop Dreams* (1994), Fi1m 92, as Self — [page](https://film.one/film/hoop-dreams.md)

## Complete filmography (146)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *APART* (2026), Writer
- *Talk Me* (2026), Executive Producer
- *Megadoc* (2025), Thanks
- *The Voice of Hind Rajab* (2025), Executive Producer — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/the-voice-of-hind-rajab.md)
- *From Sidney, with Love* (2025), Executive Producer
- *Katrina: Come Hell and High Water* (2025), series, Executive Producer, Director
- *Highest 2 Lowest* (2025), Executive Producer, Director
- *How I Learned to Die* (2025), Executive Producer
- *Nervous Energy* (2025), Executive Producer
- *In Between Storms* (2025), Executive Producer
- *13 Steps - Die unglaubliche Karriere von Edwin Moses* (2024), Actor
- *The Piano Lesson* (2024), Thanks — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/film/the-piano-lesson.md)
- *Brownies* (2024), Executive Producer
- *The Truck* (2024), Executive Producer
- *PUNTER* (2024), Executive Producer
- *F*ck That Guy* (2024), Executive Producer
- *In Freedom* (2023), Executive Producer
- *You Resemble Me* (2022), Executive Producer
- *The Captain* (2022), series, Executive Producer
- *Off-Time* (2022), Associate Producer
- *NYC Epicenters 9/11➔2021½* (2021), series, Producer, Director
- *Son of the South* (2021), Executive Producer
- *Tales from the Hood 3* (2020), Executive Producer
- *David Byrne's American Utopia* (2020), Director, Executive Producer, Producer
- *Da 5 Bloods* (2020), Writer, Producer, Director — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/da-5-bloods.md)
- *3 Brothers: Radio Raheem, Eric Garner and George Floyd* (2020), Director
- *New York New York* (2020), Director
- *See You Yesterday* (2019), Producer
- *Land of the Free* (2019), Director
- *Amazing Grace* (2018), Producer
- *Cherish* (2018), Executive Producer
- *BlacKkKlansman* (2018), Writer, Director, Producer — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/blackkklansman.md)
- *Tales from the Hood 2* (2018), Executive Producer
- *Time 2 Surrender* (2018), Executive Producer
- *Nigerian Prince* (2018), Executive Producer
- *The Black 14* (2018), Executive Producer
- *Pass Over* (2018), Producer, Director
- *She's Gotta Have It* (2017), series, as Drum Major · Creator, Director
- *Rodney King* (2017), Director, Producer
- *Be Truly Free* (2017), as Narrator (voice) · Director
- *Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: $15 Kicks* (2016), Executive Producer
- *Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: Redemption Song* (2016), Executive Producer
- *2 Fists Up* (2016), Director, Producer
- *Touched with Fire* (2016), Executive Producer
- *Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall* (2016), Director
- *Chi-Raq* (2015), Writer, Director, Producer
- *Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: Of the Father and of the Son* (2015), Executive Producer
- *Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: The Greatest Catch Ever* (2015), Director, Executive Producer
- *Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: The Ice Breaker* (2015), Executive Producer
- *Spike Lee's Lil' Joints: Italian Imports* (2015), Assistant Director, Executive Producer
- *The Girl Is in Trouble* (2015), Executive Producer
- *Da Sweet Blood of Jesus* (2015), Screenplay, Director, Producer
- *Ray Allen/AKA- Jesus Shuttlesworth* (2015), Director
- *Cronies* (2015), Executive Producer
- *Stop* (2015), Thanks
- *Throw Like A Girl* (2014), Director
- *Jerrod Carmichael: Love at the Store* (2014), Director
- *Do The Right Thing 25 Year Anniversary A Beats Music Experience* (2014), Director
- *Katt Williams: Priceless: Afterlife* (2014), Director, Producer
- *Amex Unstaged Pharrell Williams Live at the Apollo* (2014), Director
- *Dirty Hands* (2014), Executive Producer
- *Evolution of a Criminal* (2014), Executive Producer
- *We the People: From Crispus Attucks to President Barack Obama* (2014), Actor
- *I Can't Breathe* (2014), Director, Writer
- *Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth* (2013), Director, Executive Producer
- *Oldboy* (2013), Director
- *Bad 25* (2012), Director
- *Red Hook Summer* (2012), as Mr. Mookie · Director, Screenplay, Producer
- *You're Nobody 'til Somebody Kills You* (2012), Executive Producer
- *One Night* (2012), Presenter
- *Pariah* (2011), Executive Producer
- *Doubles with Slight Pepper* (2011), Executive Producer
- *On the Shoulders of Giants* (2011), Actor
- *If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise* (2010), series, Director, Producer, Creator
- *Saint John of Las Vegas* (2010), Executive Producer
- *Passing Strange* (2009), Director — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/passing-strange.md)
- *Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later* (2009), Director
- *Kobe Doin' Work* (2009), Producer, Director
- *Miracle at St. Anna* (2008), Director, Producer
- *Genesis | Come Rain or Shine* (2008), Camera Operator
- *Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans & the Movies* (2008), Actor
- *Shark* (2006), series, Director — Fi1m 55, [page](https://film.one/tv/shark.md)
- *When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts* (2006), series, Producer, Director, Creator
- *Inside Man* (2006), Director
- *All the Invisible Children* (2006), Director, Producer
- *Jesus Children of America* (2005), Director
- *C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America* (2005), Presenter
- *How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)* (2005), Actor
- *Miracle's Boys* (2005), series, Director
- *Through the Fire* (2005), Actor
- *Sucker Free City* (2004), Director
- *She Hate Me* (2004), Director, Screenplay, Producer
- *Good Fences* (2003), Executive Producer
- *25th Hour* (2002), Producer, Director
- *Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet* (2002), Director, Producer
- *Jim Brown: All-American* (2002), Director, Producer
- *The Concert for New York City* (2001), Director, Director of Photography
- *Come Rain or Come Shine* (2001), Director of Photography, Director
- *Home Invaders* (2001), Executive Producer
- *3 A.M.* (2001), as Filmmaker · Producer, Co-Executive Producer
- *A Huey P. Newton Story* (2001), Director
- *The Making of 'Bamboozled'* (2001), Director
- *Bamboozled* (2000), Director, Screenplay, Producer
- *The Original Kings of Comedy* (2000), Director, Producer
- *Bernie Mac: Live from Charlotte* (2000), Director
- *Lisa Picard Is Famous* (2000), as Spike Lee
- *Love & Basketball* (2000), Producer
- *The Best Man* (1999), Producer
- *Summer of Sam* (1999), as John Jeffries · Director, Writer, Producer
- *Pavarotti & Friends 99 for Guatemala and Kosovo* (1999), Director
- *John Leguizamo: Freak* (1998), Director
- *Pavarotti & Friends - For the Children of Liberia* (1998), Director
- *He Got Game* (1998), Screenplay, Producer, Director
- *4 Little Girls* (1997), as Interviewer (voice) (uncredited) · Director, Producer, Writer
- *HIStory on Film, Volume II* (1997), Director
- *Get on the Bus* (1996), Director, Executive Producer
- *Girl 6* (1996), as Jimmy · Director, Producer
- *Lumière & Company* (1995), Director
- *Clockers* (1995), as Chucky · Director, Screenplay, Producer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/clockers.md)
- *Tales from the Hood* (1995), Executive Producer
- *New Jersey Drive* (1995), Executive Producer
- *Below the Rim* (1995), Actor
- *Drop Squad* (1994), Executive Producer
- *Crooklyn* (1994), as Snuffy · Director, Producer, Screenplay
- *Seven Songs for Malcolm X* (1993), Actor
- *Malcolm X* (1992), as Shorty · Director, Screenplay, Producer — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/malcolm-x.md)
- *Prince and the N.P.G.: Diamonds and Pearls Video Collection* (1992), Director
- *Ghostwriter* (1992), series, as Special Agent Pete (archive footage), Special Agent Pete
- *Jungle Fever* (1991), as Cyrus · Producer, Director, Writer
- *Suspect* (1991), Thanks
- *Spike Lee Presents Mike Tyson* (1990), Director
- *Lonely in America* (1990), as Spike Lee (Newsstand Customer) (uncredited)
- *Mo' Better Blues* (1990), as Giant · Writer, Director, Producer
- *Spike & Co.: Do It a Cappella* (1990), Director
- *In Living Color* (1990), series, Actor
- *Do the Right Thing* (1989), as Mookie · Screenplay, Producer, Director — Fi1m 93, [page](https://film.one/film/do-the-right-thing.md)
- *Public Enemy: Fight the Power... Live!* (1989), Actor
- *School Daze* (1988), as Darrell 'Half-Pint' Dunlap · Writer, Director, Producer
- *Horn of Plenty* (1986), Director, Writer
- *She's Gotta Have It* (1986), as Mars Blackmon · Director, Writer, Producer, Editor — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/film/shes-gotta-have-it.md)
- *Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads* (1983), Director, Writer, Editor, Producer
- *Sarah* (1981), Director
- *The Answer* (1980), Director
- *Liberty*, Producer
- *Gordon Hemingway & the Realm of Cthulhu*, Producer
- *Boner*, Writer, Director, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Spike Lee](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-e2e3bed4e0dc.jpg) Spike Lee — Montclair Film, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Spike_Lee_2025.jpg/1280px-Spike_Lee_2025.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks by David Shankbone (2007)](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-00c0ec7d66b4.jpg) 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks by David Shankbone (2007) — David Shankbone, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/40_Acres_%26_A_Mule_Filmworks_by_David_Shankbone.jpg/1280px-40_Acres_%26_A_Mule_Filmworks_by_David_Shankbone.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![This is the flag in front of the 40 Acres & A Mule building in Brooklyn, NY.](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-a78bf3a9f41a.jpg) This is the flag in front of the 40 Acres & A Mule building in Brooklyn, NY. — Jondoyle at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/40_Acres_Flag.jpg/1280px-40_Acres_Flag.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Lois Brown and Spike Lee speaking at the 2025 Delivering Democracy Lecture at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-452d3dc18266.jpg) Lois Brown and Spike Lee speaking at the 2025 Delivering Democracy Lecture at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore — Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Lois_Brown_%26_Spike_Lee_%2854367945048%29.jpg/1280px-Lois_Brown_%26_Spike_Lee_%2854367945048%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Spike Lee](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-20a83ee56431.jpg) Spike Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Spike Lee](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-d78049477422.jpg) Spike Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Spike Lee](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-583dd8f2a48a.jpg) Spike Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Lois Brown and Spike Lee speaking at the 2025 Delivering Democracy Lecture at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-3d0be87928b5.jpg) Lois Brown and Spike Lee speaking at the 2025 Delivering Democracy Lecture at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore — Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Lois_Brown_%26_Spike_Lee_%2854367945463%29.jpg/1280px-Lois_Brown_%26_Spike_Lee_%2854367945463%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Photo By: Neil Grabowsky (2025)](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-4bb4a14873c9.jpg) Photo By: Neil Grabowsky (2025) — Montclair Film, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Neil_Grabosky_-_Spike_Lee_-_NEG_0870_%2854865282300%29.jpg/1280px-Neil_Grabosky_-_Spike_Lee_-_NEG_0870_%2854865282300%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Spike Lee](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-c371a009dcb9.jpg) Spike Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Spike Lee](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-5659e2491397.jpg) Spike Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Spike Lee](https://film.one/media/person/80238/gallery-ec8249ecdefb.jpg) Spike Lee — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 1 won, 4 nominated

- 2019: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (won), for *BlacKkKlansman*
- 2019: Best Director (nominated), for *BlacKkKlansman*
- 2019: Best Picture (nominated), for *BlacKkKlansman*
- 1998: Best Documentary Feature Film (nominated), for *4 Little Girls*
- 1990: Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated), for *Do the Right Thing*

### BAFTA Film Awards — 1 won

- 2019: Best Adapted Screenplay (won)

### Other awards — 5 won

- American Society of Cinematographers Awards 2024: American Society of Cinematographers Awards (won)
- Academy Honorary Award 2015: Academy Honorary Award (won)
- George Polk Award 2006: George Polk Award (won)
- Honorary César 2003: Honorary César (won)
- NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award 2003: NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/spike-lee