The Truth About Spike Lee's Wife, Tonya Lewis Lee

Director Spike Lee is riding high as 2020 film Da 5 Bloods earns acclaim from critics and audiences. The Netflix movie starring Chadwick Boseman, Delroy Lindo, and Jonathan Majors is about a group of four Vietnam War veterans who return to their former battlefield in search of their squadron leader's remains and a treasure of gold bricks they found decades ago. It is Lee's first feature film since he won his first competitive Academy Award in 2019 for BlacKkKlansman.

By his side throughout his success has been his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee. They met at a Congressional Black Caucus dinner in 1992 and wed the following year. They have two adult kids — daughter Satchel and son Jackson — and make their home in New York City. The power couple shines on the red carpet and frequently collaborators. Their partnership has offered opportunities for Lewis Lee to expand her interests and become involved in show business. Find out more about this extraordinary woman and what causes she promotes on her own platform.

Tonya Lewis Lee always wanted to pursue a career in entertainment, but at first, she didn't think it was possible for her to "make a living" at it, according to an interview with Goop. Instead, she started as a corporate lawyer in Washington, D.C., after graduating with a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia, but after joining forces with her husband, she was able to pursue her love for writing in a bigger way.

She told Goop, "...my husband was very supportive of me following my passion, so I began my professional creative life writing every day just for myself — simply to work on the craft of writing."

Lewis Lee would go on to produce scripted and documentary work for Nickelodeon and Disney through her first production company, Madstone. In 2012, she co-founded ToniK Productions with Nikki Silver. Together, the women have optioned several book-to-movie projects. They acquired the rights to the Gallagher Girls book series in 2013, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Nikki and I like to have provocative, interesting conversations that push us to grow and evolve. I think in our work our desire is to make people think, to make people feel and to push the envelope a little bit," Lewis Lee said.

ToniK also teamed up with singer John Legend's Get Lifted Film Co. and Bron Studios for All Rise, an independent film starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jennifer Hudson, A$AP Rocky, and BlacKkKlansman lead John David Washington. The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

While Tonya Lewis Lee pursues her own passion projects, she also collaborates with her husband, Spike Lee. The couple has released three children's books — two of them are a play on one of Spike's iconic screen characters, Mars Blackman. Please, Baby, Please is about taking care of a fussy toddler, and Please, Puppy, Please places a young dog into a household full of toddlers. Their third book, Giant Steps to Change the World, highlights the paths leaders took to change the world.

The Lees also worked together to adapt She's Gotta Have It into a Netflix series. Spike credited Tonya for coming up with the idea to turn his first film into a streaming show, according to The New York Times. Tonya served as the series' executive producer, and in that role, she reportedly helped amplify the female voice within the series — something that was missing from the original film. "As a woman looking at that, it's very different, you recognize that real vulnerability that you feel," Lewis Lee said. "And sometimes men don't see that."

Lewis Lee also co-wrote the novel Gotham Diaries with Crystal McCrary Anthony. She plans to adapt the comedic book about upper-class African Americans in New York City for the screen.

Health advocacy is a big part of Tonya Lewis Lee's platform. She has served as the spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health's infant mortality awareness campaign. She also released the documentary, Crisis in the Crib – Saving Our Nation's Babies, highlighting the importance of women's health and the impact of maternal and infant mortality rates and related issues on the black community.

"When I realized that the World Health Organization ranked the United States 29th in the world in infant mortality I had to become involved," she told Women's eNews in 2010.

In 2014, Lewis Lee launched Motiva, a line of organic multivitamins and nutritional supplements to promote a healthy lifestyle. Motiva includes prenatal products that Lewis Lee hopes will allow her to give back to pregnant women in under-served areas, according to The Hollywood Reporter. At home, she's is a vegan who shares her healthy lifestyle with her husband and children.