Born in Hong Kong and raised in New York City’s Chinatown, Michael Justin Lee is proudly a part of the new wave of Asian-American artists. Major entertainment industry organizations which have accepted him for professional membership include:
- The Producers Guild of America
- The Writers Guild of America
- The Dramatists Guild of America
- The Songwriters Guild of America
- The Country Music Association
- The Gospel Music Association
- The Society of Composers and Lyricists
As a music creator, he is the composer of “A Unique Life: A Tribute to Marlene Dietrich,” “Anna May Wong: A Screen Icon’s Story,” “Joan of Arc: Savior of France,” “Snow White: The Once and Future Princess,” “Lady Macbeth: The Rock Opera,” “Cleopatra: Queen of Egypt,” “Peter Pan: The Rock Opera,” “Mulan: A Soldier’s Story” and “Romeo and Juliet: The Rock Opera” which are all streaming on Spotify, iTunes/Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and on over 150 other platforms worldwide. He was also the founder of the Country music group, Homeland Hope. Their first album, entitled “Christmas Peace,” was released on November 1, 2021 and their second, “Life is Tough (But I’m a Whole Lot Tougher)” was released on January 1, 2022 onto all the streaming sites as the others.
As a filmmaker, he works primarily in the genre he terms “edu-tainment.” His most recent movie, released in July of 2022 is entitled “Mere Oblivion” and is about a small town’s eccentric, self-proclaimed brilliant dramatist who brings art and passion into the lives of three young people who, each immersed in individual family dilemmas, had never had any interest in art. She ultimately leads them to create their own ridiculous though earnest Shakespearean theatrical troupe, forging a new bond of family among themselves.
In 2017, he wrote, produced, and directed modernized cinematic interpretations of the Biblical story of “Salomé” and the ancient Euripidean tragedy “Medea.” In 2018, he achieved the same for the ancient Sophoclean tragedy “Antigone” and the historical story of “Joan of Arc.” All five of his movies are available for purchase on the three dominant Transactional Video-on-Demand platforms, Apple iTunes Films, Google Play Movies, and Amazon Video, in over 80 countries across six continents.
Previous cinematic works of his have been screened at Court Métrage Festival de Cannes and have been recipient of a Motion Picture Opportunity Fund grant from the Virginia Film Office. His comedic stage play, “Grandmothers,” was produced Off-Broadway in 2013, the same year that he was honored at the American Society of Journalists and Authors’ Outstanding Book Awards for his first book, “The Chinese Way to Wealth and Prosperity” (McGraw-Hill, 2012).
An alumnus of Brown University and New York University, he has held academic appointments as Professorial Lecturer at Georgetown University and Practitioner Instructor at Johns Hopkins University. He most recently taught at the University of Maryland where he was a three time winner of the Distinguished Teaching Award.
