Who

The most acclaimed African-American filmmaker of his generation, Lee has written and directed classics like Malcolm X and Do the Right Thing, incited some of the biggest race controversies since the civil rights era, and attended a Knicks game or two.

Backstory

Shelton Jackson Lee ("Spike" is his childhood nickname) was raised in Fort Greene: His father was a jazz musician and his mother was an art teacher. After attending Atlanta's Morehouse College, Lee enrolled at NYU's film school and directed his first feature, She's Gotta Have It, in 1986. Shot over two weeks on a tiny budget of $170,000 (with help from fellow film students like Ang Lee), the movie earned critical acclaim and was a surprise hit, bringing in $7 million at the box office and winning an award at Cannes.

It was his third movie, though, 1989's saga of multi-ethnic living and rioting in Bed-Stuy, Do The Right Thing, that minted Lee's reputation. He's since directed—and, at least in his earlier films, acted in—a long list of urban tales including Jungle Fever, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled, and The 25th Hour. Of course, he's supplemented his income by directing—and occasionally appearing in—a slew of commercials. He played the character Mars Blackmon from She's Gotta Have It in Nike spots alongside Michael Jordan for years, and he's also pushed products for Taco Bell, Converse, Jaguar, and Ben & Jerry's.

Of note

Lee's 35 films have vacillated between vapid dreck and socially-engaged works of fiery conviction—like many filmmakers, he says the money from his bad films pays for his good ones. The quality of his recent cinematic efforts has indeed careened between extremes: 2004's She Hate Me was one of the most critically despised movies of the year, while his unflinching 2006 HBO doc about Katrina, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts, won major plaudits. His upcoming projects include a sequel to his bankable heist drama, the Denzel Washington vehicle Inside Man, and a film set in Italy about an African-American "Buffalo" regiment in World War II, Miracle at St. Anna. In 2008, Lee will also make his Broadway debut, directing a revival of Stalag 17 with Clive Owen as the lead.

For the record

His production company is named 40 Acres and a Mule, a reference, of course, to the payout promised to freed African American slaves after the Civil War.

Off hours

The most notoriously hardcore Knicks fan in New York, Lee has courtside season tickets, as anyone who's ever watched a Knicks game knows. They're estimated to set him back upwards of $86,000 each season.

Personal

Lee is married to Tonya Lewis, a former lawyer who's now a television producer. They have two kids, Satchel and Jackson. The Lees live in a 9,500-square-foot Italianate palazzo/townhouse on 63rd Street. The building—separated from the sidewalk by an iron fence—has quite a pedigree; previous owners include a Vanderbilt, the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, and artist Jasper Johns.

No joke

Lee sued Viacom in 2003 to get the media conglomerate to change the name of its then-imminent dude network Spike. He lost.