Spike Lee

Spike Lee is a director, actor, producer, author, and educator who has helped revolutionize contemporary black cinema. Lee is a forerunner in the "Do It Yourself" school of independent film. He received a Peabody Award for the documentary If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, which revisited the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast region as residents attempted to rebuild in their cities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, while also demanding assistance and accountability from their political leaders. Lee's other critical and box office successes have included such films as Inside Man, 25th Hour, The Original Kings of Comedy, Bamboozled, and Summer of Sam. Lee taught a course on filmmaking at Harvard in 1991, and in 1993 he began as a professor at New York University’s Graduate Film Program at Tisch School of the Arts, where he received his Master of Fine Arts in Film Production. In 2002, he was appointed the Artistic Director of the Graduate Film Program. Spike Lee has combined his extensive creative experience into yet another venture: partnering with DDB Needham, he created Spike/DDB, a full-service advertising agency.