Tonya Lewis Lee

TONYA LEWIS LEE is a director, producer, and writer whose work often explores the personal impact of social justice issues. As a producer, Lee has produced film and television including MONSTER, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and is now on Netflix. Most recently Lee co-directed and co-produced AFTERSHOCK, that premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, which examines the U.S. maternal mortality crisis. AFTERSHOCK won the Special Jury Award at Sundance for impact for change and was acquired by Onyx and ABC News to stream on Hulu.

An author of three children’s books including the classic PLEASE BABY PLEASE, Tonya has enjoyed over twenty years of producing content for television and streaming platforms including SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT for Netflix.

Working through her production company ToniK Productions, adapting books to screen has been a sweet spot for Tonya as she produced such classics as the Jacqueline Woodson novel, MIRACLE’S BOYS, a six-part television series, and the television film THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM, based on the Christopher Paul Curtis novel.

Tonya has also produced unscripted television including the film I SIT WHERE I WANT, THE LEGACY OF BROWN V. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION for Nickelodeon, the documentary film CRISIS IN THE CRIB for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, exploring infant mortality in the United States.

As an entrepreneur, Tonya founded MOVITA ORGANICS, an organic vitamin supplement company that not only provides tools for women to access a healthy life but content as well.

Tonya is also a member of the Writers Guild of America and a member of PGA’s Producers Council Board of Delegates, and Co-Chair of the One Guild committee advancing diversity, equity and inclusion amongst producers in the film and television industry, Tonya graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a B.A. and from the University of Virginia School of Law with a J.D. She lives in New York City with her husband and is the mother of two children.