American film director and author Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee in Atlanta Georgia on March 20, 1957. He grew up in Brooklyn where his parents instilled a strong sense of his African American heritage through jazz music, literature and art. Nicknamed "Spike" a reference to his toughness, Lee acknowledges his instigator tendencies which come through with the subject matter in his films. Spike realized he wanted to become a filmmaker after viewing "The Deer Hunter" by Michael Cimino. Following his graduation from Morehouse College he enrolled in NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts graduate film...