Bruceploitation (a portmanteau of "Bruce Lee" and "exploitation") is an exploitation film subgenre that emerged after the death of martial arts film star Bruce Lee in 1973, during which time filmmakers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea cast Bruce Lee look-alike actors ("Lee-alikes") to star in imitation martial arts films, in order to exploit Lee's sudden international popularity. Bruce Lee look-alike characters also commonly appear in other media, including anime, comic books, manga, and video games.

When martial arts film star Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973, he was Hong Kong's most famous martial arts actor, known for his roles in six feature-length Hong Kong martial arts films in the early 1970s: Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Golden Harvest's The Way of the Dragon (1972) and the incomplete film Game of Death (1972), both directed and written by Lee; and Golden Harvest / Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973) and Game of Death: The Clouse Cut (1978), both films directed by Robert Clouse.

When Enter the Dragon became a box office success worldwide, many Hong Kong studios feared that a movie without their most famous star in it would not be financially successful and decided to play on Lee's sudden international fame by making movies that sounded like Bruce Lee starring vehicles. They cast actors who looked like Lee and changed their screen names to variations of Lee's name, such as Bruce Li and Bruce Le.

After Bruce Lee's death, many actors assumed Lee-like stage names. Bruce Li (黎(Lí)小龍 from his real name Ho Chung Tao 何宗道), Bruce Chen, Bruce Lai (real name Chang Yi-Tao), Bruce Le (呂(Lǚ)小龍 from his real name Wong Kin Lung, 黃建龍), Bruce Lie, Bruce Leung, Saro Lee, Bruce Ly, Bruce Thai, Brute Lee, Myron Bruce Lee, Lee Bruce, and Bruce Lei / Dragon Lee (real name Moon Kyoung-seok) were hired by studios to play Lee-styled roles. Bruce Li appeared in Bruce Lee Against Supermen, in which he stars as Kato, assistant of the Green Hornet, a role originally played by the real Bruce Lee.

Dragon Lee, a Korean who also used the name Bruce Lei, was another in this genre.

Additionally, when some Japanese karate and Korean taekwondo films were dubbed into English for U.S. release, the protagonists were given new Lee-like stage names. Such was the case with Jun Chong (credited as Bruce K. L. Lea in the altered and English-dubbed Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave) and Tadashi Yamashita (credited as Bronson Lee in the altered English-dubbed Bronson Lee, Champion).

Jackie Chan, who started his movie career as an extra and stunt artist in some of Bruce Lee's movies, was also given roles where he was promoted as the next Bruce Lee as Chan Yuen Lung (with Yuen Lung's stage name borrowed from his fellow Fortunes actor Sammo Hung), such as New Fist of Fury (1976). Only when he made some comedy-themed movies for another studio was he able to attain box-office success.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, actor Danny Chan Kwok-kwan sported Lee's look in the Cantonese comedy film Shaolin Soccer. The role landed him to play Lee in the biographical television series The Legend of Bruce Lee.^{[citation needed]}