orig. Shelton Jackson Lee
born March 20, 1957, Atlanta, Ga., U.S.
U.S. film director.
He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and earned a master's degree in film at New York University. The comedy She's Gotta Have It (1986) brought him attention, but it was Do the Right Thing (1989), a portrait of racial tensions in Brooklyn, that brought him widespread acclaim. Many of his films focused on aspects of African American life, including School Daze (1988), Jungle Fever (1991), Crooklyn (1994), and He Got Game (1998). The epic Malcolm X (1992) and the documentary Four Little Girls (1997) showed Lee's versatility as a director.