Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. Lee has won numerous accolades for his work, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and two Peabody Awards. He has also been honored with an Honorary BAFTA Award in 2002, an Honorary César in 2003, and the Academy Honorary Award in 2015.
Mo' Better Blues is a 1990 American musical comedy-drama film starring Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, and Spike Lee, who also wrote, produced, and directed. It follows a period in the life of fictional jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam as a series of bad decisions result in his jeopardizing both his relationships and his playing career. The film focuses on themes of friendship, loyalty, honesty, cause-and-effect, and ultimately salvation. It features the music of the Branford Marsalis quartet and Terence Blanchard on trumpet. The film was released five months after the death of Robin Harris and is dedicated to his memory, being his final acting role.
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks is the production company of Spike Lee, founded in 1979. The company name is a reference to the phrase most often used to refer to the early Reconstruction period policy and episode of events, in which certain recently emancipated black families on the Georgia coast were given lots of land no larger than 40 acres (160,000 m2) and in some cases surplus army mules. The order, issued in 1865 by General Sherman as "Special Field Order 15", was later revoked by Andrew Johnson, and the land was taken away from the freed slaves and returned to previous owners. The company's logo contains a circle with the icon "40a". Later on, it used a parody of the Mark VII Limited logo.
She's Gotta Have It is a 1986 American black-and-white comedy drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Spike Lee. Filmed on a small budget and Lee's first feature-length film to be released, it earned positive reviews and launched Lee's career.
Ernest Roscoe Dickerson is an American director, cinematographer, and screenwriter of film, television, and music videos.
Theresa Randle is an American actress. She has appeared in films such as Malcolm X (1992), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Space Jam (1996), Spawn (1997) and the Bad Boys franchise (1995–2020).
Dinner at Eight is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor from a screenplay by Frances Marion and Herman J. Mankiewicz, based on George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's 1932 play of the same title. The film features an ensemble cast of Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, and Billie Burke.
Mars Blackmon is a fictional character in the film She's Gotta Have It (1986), played by the film's writer/director, Spike Lee. In the film, he is a "Brooklyn-loving" fan of the New York Knicks, sports, and Air Jordans. This led to late 1980s and early 1990s appearances in Nike Air Jordan commercials alongside Jordan and Mars becoming well known for his use of the phrase, "It's gotta be da shoes." The ad campaign with Lee as Mars has been credited as a landmark in the evolution of sneakers into massively profitable items of fashion. When Lee was first approached to co-star with Michael Jordan for Nike, Lee thought the offer was a prank from his friends. The Jordan Mars shoe line is named in honor of the Mars Blackmon character, with Spike Lee's son, Jackson Lewis Lee, being the designer of the Jordan Mars 270.
Joie Lee is an American screenwriter, film producer and actress.
William James Edwards Lee III was an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, his compositions for jazz percussionist Max Roach, and his session work as a "first-call" musician and band leader to many of the twentieth-century's most significant musical artists, including Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Harry Belafonte, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Billy Strayhorn, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger, among many others.
"Wild Thing" is a single by American rapper Tone Lōc from his 1989 album Lōc-ed After Dark. The title is a reference to the phrase "doin' the wild thing," a euphemism for sex. According to producer Mario Caldato Jr., who engineered and mixed the song, producer Michael Ross was inspired by an utterance of Fab 5 Freddy “Come on baby let’s do the wild thing" in Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It, and asked Young MC to write the lyrics.
Kimberly Ann Director is an American actress. She has played the roles of Kim Diamond in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000), and Stevie in Inside Man (2006). Beginning in 2017, she has appeared as a recurring guest star on the HBO series The Deuce.
Peter Clarke, known professionally as Clarke Peters, is an American actor, writer, and director, who has spent much of his adult life in the United Kingdom. He is best known for his roles as Lester Freamon in the television series The Wire (2002–2008) and Albert Lambreaux in the television series Treme (2010–2013).
Thomas Jefferson Byrd was an American character actor who appeared in several of director Spike Lee's films. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in the 2003 Broadway revival of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
Felicia Pearson is an American actress, rapper, author. She played a fictionalized version of herself nicknamed "Snoop" on The Wire and wrote a 2007 memoir, Grace After Midnight, detailing her troubled childhood and time in prison for second-degree murder.
Spike Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor, known for films that deal with controversial social and political issues. Each of Lee's films is typically referred to as "A Spike Lee Joint" and the closing credits always end with the phrases "By Any Means Necessary," "Ya Dig," and "Sho Nuff."
Red Hook Summer is a 2012 American film co-written and directed by Spike Lee. It is Lee's sixth film in his "Chronicles of Brooklyn" series following She's Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Crooklyn, Clockers, and He Got Game.
She's Gotta Have It is an American comedy-drama television series created by Spike Lee. It is based on his 1986 film of the same name. Ten 30-minute episodes were ordered by Netflix, all of which were directed by Lee. The show premiered on November 23, 2017. On January 1, 2018, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on May 24, 2019. On July 17, 2019, Netflix canceled the series after two seasons.
Cleo Anthony is an American actor and model. Anthony is known for his role in the Netflix series She's Gotta Have It. He has also played roles in Divergent, The Prey: Legend of Karnoctus, and Sex/Life.
DeWanda Wise is an American actress. She starred in Spike Lee's Netflix comedy-drama series She's Gotta Have It (2017–19), a contemporary adaptation of his 1986 film.
