Spike Lee is a filmmaker and actor from the United States. He is the son of Jacqueline Carroll an arts and black literature teacher, and jazz musician and composer William James Edward Lee III.
Lee has three younger siblings, Joie, David, and Cinqué, who have all worked in various roles in Lee’s films. His cousin is director Malcolm D. Lee. His family relocated from Atlanta to Brooklyn, New York when he was a child.
His mother named him “Spike” when he was a child. He went to John Dewey High School in Brooklyn’s Gravesend district. His father William James Edwards Lee wrote the music for many of his films, including She’s Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), and Mo Better Blues (1990).
Lee was involved in many Strata-East jazz record label releases, including directing The New York Bass Violin Choir in 1980. Spike Lee’s father died at his home in Fort Greene on May 24, 2023, at the age of 94.