Spike Lee is an Oscar award-winning director, writer, actor, producer, author, and NYU Grad Film tenured professor. Lee has directed and produced over thirty films since his first feature film, the independently produced She’s Gotta Have It (1986). Lee continues to produce cinematic works of art that display his skill and ability to showcase outspoken and proactive socio-political critiques that challenge cultural assumptions about race, class and gender identity, such as the Oscar-nominated, Do the Right Thing (1989) and Lee’s epic Malcolm X (1992), which features photographs that Gordon Parks took of the activist and leader while on assignment for Life Magazine. In addition to his fiction work, Lee has produced several Academy Award-nominated, Peabody and Emmy award-winning documentaries. In addition to his prolific film career, Lee has directed and produced numerous music videos and began commercial work in 1988 with his Nike Air Jordan campaign. Lee has also authored several books. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Lee returned south to attend Morehouse College. After graduation, he returned to New York City to continue his education at NYU/Tisch, where he received his MFA in Film Production. After graduation, he founded 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, based in Brooklyn. He began teaching at Harvard in 1991, and in 1993 he joined the faculty at NYU/Tisch in the Graduate Film Program, where he was appointed artistic director in 2002, a position which he still holds today.

"I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect." Spike Lee