While attending Purchase College as a film student, he made a short titled A Place in Time based on the famous Kitty Genovese incident.
[1] Lane then directed and starred in the feature film True Identity, a vehicle for British comedian Lenny Henry funded by the Walt Disney Company.
He wrote, directed and starred in 1989's Sidewalk Stories, a black-and-white feature about a homeless street artist who becomes the guardian of a small girl after her father is murdered.
[2] Lane also had a starring role in the Mario Van Peebles film Posse, as Weezie, often the butt of jokes.
He has worked with James Earl Jones, Lenny Henry, and Frank Langella and offered one of the first film roles to The Sopranos actress Edie Falco.