Spike Lee is an American filmmaker, producer, writer and actor known for provocative films that examine race, politics, urban life and media in the United States. He was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, and raised in Brooklyn; he studied film at Morehouse College and at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where his student film Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads won a Student Academy Award[1][6]. Lee founded the production company 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks and made his feature debut with the low‑budget comedy She’s Gotta Have It (1986), which became a commercial breakthrough and launched his career[1][4]. He gained widespread critical acclaim with Do the Right Thing (1989), a tense, formally inventive portrait of racial conflict in a Brooklyn neighborhood that earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay[1][6]. His subsequent work includes Malcolm X (1992), a major biopic starring Denzel Washington that won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear, and a range of films blending drama, comedy and political commentary[1][5][6]. Lee has also produced notable documentaries and television projects, including the Oscar‑nominated 4 Little Girls (1997) and the Emmy‑winning HBO series When the Levees Broke (2006), about Hurricane Katrina[1][2][6]. In 2019 he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman (2018) and received an Academy Honorary Award in 2015 recognizing his career and influence[1][4][6]. He has frequently acted in his own films and collaborated with recurring talents such as Denzel Washington and composer Terence Blanchard[1][2]. In recent years Lee has continued directing features and high‑profile projects across film, documentary and concert film formats (including American Utopia) while remaining a prominent cultural voice on race, history and media in the U.S.[5][1]. He is widely regarded as a leading figure in contemporary American cinema and an influential mentor to younger filmmakers[6][10].