Malcolm D. Lee is a Black filmmaker born January 11, 1970, from a directing family: he is the cousin of filmmakers Spike, Joie and Cinqué Lee. Educated at Brooklyn’s Packer Collegiate Institute, he graduated from Georgetown University and joined the Directors Guild of America in 1998, the year his feature directing debut, The Best Man, reached theaters. During a year off from Georgetown, he worked as a production assistant on his cousin Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, an apprenticeship that showed him the mechanics of a major production from the ground up.
His later films include The Best Man Holiday, Undercover Brother, Roll Bounce, Night School and Space Jam: A New Legacy. In 2017 he directed Girls Trip, which grossed more than $100 million domestically and became one of the year’s biggest comedy successes. In 2021, he directed the LeBron James vehicle Space Jam: A New Legacy, extending his range into family spectacle, and in 2022 he brought The Best Man’s characters back for The Best Man: The Final Chapters, a limited series that closed out the story for streaming audiences.
His company, Blackmaled Productions, states its focus as shaping the image of Black people in media, a mission that runs through his film choices.
Discussing The Best Man in 2019, Lee said he had wanted to see educated Black people like those in his own circles represented on screen. He credited the actors who inhabited the roles, the audience that supported the film and producer Spike Lee’s protection of his creative work.
At a 2005 Directors Guild event about Roll Bounce, Lee described enjoying teen films while rarely seeing anyone like himself in them. He drew on his childhood to bring his perspective to the skating story.
