Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983. Lee's movies have examined race relations, colorism in the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. Lee has won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award. He has also received two Academy Award nominations. Besides appearing in the films Summer of Sam and She Hate Me, Victor Colicchio, Michael Imperioli and Michael Genet, co-wrote the screenplays for those films with Lee (Colicchio and Imperioli on Summer of Sam and Genet on She Hate Me). Lee's siblings Cinqué and Joie Lee also contributed to the Crooklyn screenplay, a film loosely based on their childhood. Prior to appearing in Lee's feature films, De'Adre Aziza also appeared in the stage musical Passing Strange (2006), which Lee filmed and later released as a documentary in 2009. In addition to appearing in two of Lee's feature films, Jim Brown was the subject of the documentary film Jim Brown: All-American (2002). Ossie Davis and John Turturro also appeared in the documentary film 4 Little Girls (1997). John Leguizamo also starred in the biographical film Freak (1998), documented from the stage play of the same of the same, which Lee directed. Bernie Mac appeared in Get on the Bus (1996) and the Lee-directed comedy documentary film The Original Kings of Comedy (2000), in which Mac is one of the four comedians prominently featured. T.V. Carpio, Anthony Mackie and Reynaldo Rosales appeared in She Hate Me (2004) and the Lee-directed television film Sucker Free City (2004). Lemon Andersen, Jim Brown, John Savage and Omari Hardwick also appeared in the latter film, with Hardwick also appearing in Miracle at St. Anna. Wendell Pierce also appeared in the Lee-directed documentary film When the Levees Broke (2006). Monty Ross, who was a co-producing partner for many of Lee's early films, also starred in Lee's student film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983). Roger Guenveur Smith also starred in the television documentary film A Huey P. Newton Story (2001), with Smith portraying Huey P. Newton in the stage play of the same name, which Lee directed. Several well-known public figures have appeared in Lee's feature films portraying characters other than themselves. They include: Ray Allen (He Got Game) Travis Best (He Got Game) Mark Breland (Summer of Sam) Jim Brown (He Got Game, She Hate Me) Rick Fox (He Got Game) Evander Holyfield (Summer of Sam) William Kunstler (Malcolm X) Nelson Mandela (Malcolm X) Bobby Seale (Malcolm X) Al Sharpton (Malcolm X, Bamboozled) Wyatt Tee Walker (Malcolm X) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Lee Image By Alexander Horn (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

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