Photo of Spike Lee by Marc Baptiste
Tonya Lewis Lee
Tonya Lewis Lee is a director, producer, and writer who has developed and produced content across television and streaming platforms and whose work often explores the personal impact of social justice issues. Most recently, Lee co-directed the documentary film Aftershock which had its premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and won a special jury award for impact for change. In 2018, Monster, the adaptation of the Walter Dean Myers novel that Lee produced, also premiered at Sundance and is currently streaming on Netflix. Lee also served as Executive Producer along with her husband Spike Lee of the episodic series She’s Gotta Have It which is currently streaming on Netflix. An author, Lee has written three published children’s books, including Please Baby Please and the bestselling adult novel, Gotham Diaries. And, as an entrepreneur and women’s health advocate, Lee founded Movita Organics, an organic vitamin supplement company where she continues to be a champion for the best health outcomes for all women.
Spike Lee
Academy Award® Winner SPIKE LEE’s iconic body of storytelling has made an indelible mark on filmmaking and television. Most recently, he Directed and Co-wrote Da 5 Bloods for Netflix, his latest joint. His Directed version of David Byrne’s American Utopia was released by HBO. Prior to Da 5 Bloods, the visionary filmmaker Co-Wrote and Directed the Academy Award®-nominated and critically acclaimed hit film BlacKkKlansman, winning the Oscar® for Best Adapted Screenplay.
His career spans over 30 years and includes: She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, Clockers, Girl 6, Get on the Bus, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled, 25th Hour, She Hate Me, Inside Man, Miracle at St. Anna, Red Hook Summer, Old Boy, and Chi-Raq. Lee’s outstanding feature documentary work includes the double Emmy® Award-winning If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise, a follow up to his HBO documentary film When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and the Peabody Award-winning A Huey P Newton Story. In the Television arena, he launched his Netflix original series “She’s Gotta Have It”, which ran 2 seasons on the platform. The series is a contemporary update of his classic film.
Lee is also known for his legendary Air Jordan TV commercials and marketing campaigns with Michael Jordan for Nike. In 1997 he launched the advertising agency Spike DDB, a fully integrated agency with a focus on trendsetter, cross-cultural and millennial audiences. In addition to his films, TV series and commercials, Lee has Directed a number of music videos and shorts for artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Public Enemy, Branford Marsalis, Bruce Hornsby, Miles Davis and Anita Baker.
Spike Lee is a five-time Oscar nominee (Do The Right Thing for Original Screenplay, 4 Little Girls for Documentary Feature, BlacKkKlansman for Picture, Director and Best Adapted Screenplay-Winner) and was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2015 for his lifetime achievement and contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he is a tenured Professor of Film and Artistic Director. Lee’s Production Company 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks is based in Da Republic of Brooklyn, NY.
