Don L. Lee

Don L. Lee is an American action director, stunt coordinator, fight coordinator, and second unit director. He has coordinated, performed and directed action on productions including the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, 12 Strong, Netflix's Cobra Kai, and Paramount Network's Tulsa King and Mayor of Kingstown. He also served as the sole American in his role as action director on the Disney Hotstar war epic 1962: The War in the Hills, filmed in India.

Background

Lee was born in El Centro, California and grew up in Holtville, where he became involved in competitive martial arts from a young age. At the age of fourteen, after losing a competition, Lee approached the event's producers directly and asked why he had not won, who directed him toward stunt work in Hollywood.

In 2026, he was appointed a Carter Center Celebrity Adviser, an American nonprofit organization that aims to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering. and in May 2026, he was invited to speak at the Harvard Forum at Harvard Kennedy School.

Career

Film Lee began his career by working with actor William Zabka on The Power Within movie. He has performed stunts roles on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, including Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007).

Lee's subsequent major film credits include Michael Bay's Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), Matt Reeves's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and the military thriller 12 Strong (2018). He later reunited with Garner for the 2018 action film Peppermint, where he trained her in hand-to-hand combat, knife fighting, kickboxing, and MMA-style techniques. He has served as the assistant stunt coordinator and stunt coordinator on Paramount Network's Tulsa King and Mayor of Kingstown. In the 6th season, he and his team logged 13,768 individual choreography beats. The show received critical acclaim for its action and fight sequences and was one of the most popular shows on Netflix. In Cobra Kai, Lee appeared in a dream-sequence scene alongside Ralph Macchio, where he performed fight scenes with Macchio. Lee later tested Macchio successfully for his black belt. Taurus World Stunt Awards Best Work with a Vehicle 12 Strong