Spike Lee

Lee was born to Jacqueline Carroll and William James Edward Lee III. His mother was a teacher of arts and black literature while his father was a jazz musician and composer. He has three younger siblings.

He was a very energetic and naughty child. His mother nicknamed him ‘Spike’ in a reference to his toughness. He often accompanied his mother to plays and museums and developed a keen interest in African American literature.

He attended John Dewey High School before enrolling in Morehouse College. By this time he was convinced that he wanted to make a career in film making. He graduated with a BA in Mass Communication.

He took film courses at Clark Atlanta University and earned a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

He had submitted the film ‘Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads’ as his master’s degree thesis at the Tisch School of the Arts in 1983. The film became the first student film to be showcased in Lincoln Center’s New Directors New Films Festival; it also won a Student Academy Award.

He turned a director cum actor with the 1986 comedy drama film ‘She’s Gotta Have It’, also starring Tracy Camilla Johns. The independent film projected African Americans as successful and independent individuals and marked the beginning of an era in African American cinema.

In 1988, he wrote, directed and produced a musical drama ‘School Daze’ which was in part based on the director’s own experiences at Atlanta’s Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University. The movie deals with issues like racism and skin tone bias.

He made a film on the African American activist Malcolm X in 1992. The biographical picture, titled ‘Malcolm X’ had Denzel Washington in the leading role. The screenplay was largely based on Alex Haley’s book ‘The Autobiography of Malcom X’.

The year 1995 was a very productive one for Spike. He produced and directed several movies including ‘Clockers’, ‘New Jersey Drive’ and ‘Tales from the Hood’.

His most important work so far is the documentary film ‘When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts’ about the Hurricane Katrina and the destruction it caused. The film was aired on HBO and was called "one of the most important films HBO has ever made." The film won several prestigious awards.