SHELTON JACKSON "SPIKE" LEE, THE BLACK AMERICAN INSPIRATIONAL FILMMAKER 

Did you know that Spike Lee xxvqwcbecame the youngest person ever to receive an Honorary Academy Award, and that four of his films have been preserved in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"?

Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee, born March 20, 1957, is an American filmmaker and actor that has produced more than 35 films since 1983 and has also acted in 11 of his feature films. Lee owns a production company: 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. His films have featured breakthrough and acclaimed performances from black American actors such as Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne, Samuel L. Jackson, Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie Perez, Delroy Lindo and John David Washington.

Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Jacqueline Carroll (née Shelton), a teacher of arts and black literature, and William James Edward Lee III, a jazz musician and composer, with three younger siblings: Joie, David, and Cinqué, each of whom has worked in many different positions in Lee's films. His mother nicknamed him "Spike" during his childhood.

Lee attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn's Gravesend neighborhood, and enrolled in Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, where he made his first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn. He took film courses at Clark Atlanta University and graduated with a B.A. in mass communication from Morehouse. He did graduate work at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in film and television.

In 1983, Lee won the Student Academy Award for his film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. He won awards at the Black Reel Awards for Love and Basketball, the Black Movie Awards for Inside Man, and the Berlin International Film Festival for Get on the Bus. He won British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman.

Lee was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay for Do the Right Thing and Best Documentary for 4 Little Girls, but did not win either award. In November 2015, he was given the Academy Honorary Award for his contributions to filmmaking. In 2019, he received his first Best Picture and Best Director nominations.

In 2015, at the age of 58, Lee became the youngest person ever to receive an Honorary Academy Award. He received the award as "a champion of independent film and an inspiration to young filmmakers". Frequent collaborators Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, and Wesley Snipes presented Lee with the award at a private ceremony at the Governors Awards.

In 2019, Lee's film BlacKkKlansman went on to receive 6 Academy Award nominations. Lee himself was nominated for 3 Oscars for Lee for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. He went on to win the Best Adapted Screenplay, his first Academy Award.

Two of his films have competed for the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, and of the two, BlacKkKlansman won the Grand Prix in 2018. Lee's films Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 4 Little Girls, and She's Gotta Have It were each selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". 

On May 18, 2016, Lee delivered the Commencement address for The Johns Hopkins University Class of 2016. 

Lee made his directorial debut with She's Gotta Have It (1986). He has since written and directed such films as School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), Chi-Raq (2015), BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods (2020). 

Lee's 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. He has won numerous accolades for his work, including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Student Academy Award, a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, two Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, the NAACP's President's Award, and the Cannes Grand Prix.

Lee is married to attorney Tonya Lewis Lee in 1993, and they have two children.

Source:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Leeooo 6