Early life

Miranda was born in the northern Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, and grew up in the adjacent Latino neighborhood of Inwood, but would spend a month every year in his grandparents' home town Vega Alta in Puerto Rico. Miranda's parents are Puerto Rican. His father is a former political advisor, who advised New York City mayor Ed Koch. Growing up, Lin helped create jingles, including one used for Eliot Spitzer's 2006 campaign.

After graduating from Hunter College High School, Miranda went on to attend Wesleyan University, graduating in 2002. During his time there, he co-founded a hip hop comedy troupe called Freestyle Love Supreme. He wrote the earliest draft of In the Heights in 1999, his sophomore year of college. After the show was accepted by Second Stage, Wesleyan's student theater company, Miranda worked on adding "freestyle rap ... bodegas, and salsa numbers." It played from April 20-April 22, 1999. He wrote and directed several other musicals at Wesleyan. He also acted in many other productions, ranging from musicals to Shakespeare. In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan.

Career

2000-2010: In the Heights

In 2002, Miranda and John Buffalo Mailer worked with director Thomas Kail and wrote five separate drafts of In the Heights that were dissected. During this time, Miranda worked as an English teacher at his former high school. After success off-Broadway, the musical went to Broadway in 2008. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and for Best Original Score and the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Miranda's performance earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Miranda made his last performance in the Broadway show on February 15, 2009.

Miranda reprised his role of Usnavi when the national tour of In the Heights played in Los Angeles, California from June 23 to July 25, 2010. The tour continued without him at the helm until it played in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he played Usnavi. The Broadway production played its final performance on January 9, 2011 after 29 previews and 1,185 regular performances. Miranda reprised the role of Usnavi from December 25, 2010 until the closing of the production.

External video

Playwright, Composer, and Performer Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2015 MacArthur Fellow, MacArthur Foundation

Lin-Manuel Miranda Performs at the White House Poetry Jam, White House

Miranda wrote, directed, and acted in an independent film, Clayton's Friends (1996). In 2007, he made a guest appearance on the television series The Sopranos in the episode "Remember When." Miranda also worked as an English teacher at his former high school, wrote for the Manhattan Times as a columnist and restaurant reviewer, and composed music for commercials. In 2008, he was invited by composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz to contribute two new songs to a revised version of Schwartz and Nina Faso's 1978 musical Working, which opened in May 2008 at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.

Miranda wrote Spanish language dialogue and worked with Stephen Sondheim to translate into Spanish song lyrics for the revival of West Side Story, which opened on Broadway in March 2009. He is also a composer and actor on the 2009 revival of The Electric Company. Miranda also appeared in the CollegeHumor sketch "Hardly Working: Rap Battle", playing himself working as an intern and rapper.

In September 2009, Miranda played Alvie, Gregory House's roommate in a psychiatric hospital, in the two-hour season six premiere episode of House. He reprised the role in May 2010. He also has done work for Sesame Street, where he has played occasional roles and sings the theme song to Murray Has a Little Lamb.

2010-present: Hamilton

Miranda co-wrote the music and lyrics for Bring It On: The Musical with Tom Kitt and Amanda Green. Bring It On premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia in January 2011. The cast included Amanda LaVergne as Campbell, Adrienne Warren as Danielle, Nick Blaemire as Randall, Ryann Redmond as Bridget, and "award-winning competitive cheerleaders from across the country". The musical opened on October 30, 2011 at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, California at the start of a US National tour. After its national tour, the show played a limited engagement on Broadway at the St. James Theatre, beginning previews on July 12, 2012, and officially opening on August 1, 2012. It closed on December 30, 2012. It was nominated for Tony Awards in the categories of Best Musical and Best Choreography.

In 2011, Miranda appeared as a guest on the TV series Modern Family in the episode "Good Cop Bad Dog". He appeared as Charley in an Encores! staged concert of Merrily We Roll Along at the New York City Center in February 2012. Later that year, he appeared in a small role in The Odd Life of Timothy Green as Reggie and played a recurring role on the 2013 NBC drama Do No Harm.

In 2013, Miranda appeared in the episode "Bedtime Stories" (Season 9, Episode 11) on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. In 2014, he performed with The Skivvies, an indie-rock comedy duo consisting of Nick Cearley and Lauren Molina and participated in the live show of This American Life held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on June 7, 2014. For that show, Miranda wrote the music and lyrics for 21 Chump Street: The Musical, a production based on an earlier piece of journalism from TAL by reporter Robbie Brown. Also in 2014, Miranda appeared in the revival of Tick, Tick... Boom! as part of the Encores! Off-Center series under the artistic direction of Jeanine Tesori. The show was directed by Oliver Butler.

In 2007, Miranda read Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton on vacation and, inspired by the book, wrote a rap about Hamilton for the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word on May 12, 2009, accompanied by Alex Lacamoire. Miranda later said he spent a year writing the Hamilton song "My Shot," revising it countless times for every verse to reflect Alexander Hamilton's intellect. By 2012, Miranda was performing an extended set of pieces based on the life of Hamilton, referred to as the Hamilton Mixtape; the New York Times called it "an obvious game changer". In 2015, Chernow and Miranda received the 2015 History Makers Award by the New York Historical Society for their work in creating Hamilton.

Hamilton, a musical based on the Hamilton Mixtape, premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater in January 2015, directed by Thomas Kail. Miranda wrote the book and score and stars as the title character. The show received highly positive reviews, and its engagement was sold out. It began previews on Broadway in July 2015 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre and officially opened on August 6, 2015, earning rave reviews. On the first night of Hamilton previews over 700 people lined up for lottery tickets.

Miranda has been engaged to write songs for Walt Disney Animation Studios' 56th feature, Moana. Miranda also contributed music for the film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the invitation of director J. J. Abrams, specifically writing a song for the scene in Maz Kanata's Cantina, an homage to the classic Mos Eisley Cantina scene and song after legendary Star Wars composer John Williams declined to write a new cantina song, wishing to instead focus on the film's orchestral score.

On January 24, 2016 Miranda performed the role of Loud Hailer in the Broadway production of Les Misérables, fulfilling his childhood dream of being in the show, as it was the first production he ever saw on Broadway.

On March 15, 2016, a portion of the cast of Hamilton performed at the White House and hosted workshops, and in the Rose Garden afterwards Miranda performed freestyle rap from prompts held up by President Obama.

In April 2016 Miranda and Jeremy McCarter's book, Hamilton: The Revolution, was released; it is 285 pages long and details Hamilton's journey from an idea to a successful Broadway musical. It includes an inside look at not only Hamilton's revolution, but the cultural revolution that permeates the show. It also has footnotes from Miranda and behind the scene glimpses of the show.

On April 24, 2016 Miranda performed on the show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The show was explaining the debt crisis in Puerto Rico and had Miranda, the son of parents from Puerto Rico, perform an emotional rap about the allowing the island to restructure its debt.

On May 16, 2016, he was given an honorary Doctorate of the Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and also gave the commencement speech.

On May 20, 2016, for his work in the role of Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton, Miranda received the Drama League Distinguished Performance Award—an honor that a performer can only receive once during his or her career.

Personal life

Miranda married Vanessa Adriana Nadal, a high school friend, in 2010. At the wedding reception, Miranda, along with the engagement party, presented a group rendition of the Fiddler on the Roof song "To Life". The video was posted on YouTube, where it has been viewed more than four million times. Nadal is a litigation associate at the global law firm Jones Day.

Miranda received an honorary degree from Yeshiva University, along with his lifelong friend Johannah Ward, during its May 14, 2009 graduation ceremony. He is the youngest person to receive an honorary degree from Yeshiva University. In the Heights is based in the upper Manhattan community of Washington Heights, also home to Yeshiva's campus. Ed Koch, former mayor of New York City, presented Miranda with the degree and remarked about first meeting him when Miranda was seven years old.

Miranda and Nadal's son Sebastian was born on November 10, 2014. According to an interview with Maximum Fun podcast Can I Pet Your Dog?, Miranda has a dog named "Tobi" or "Tobillo" from the Dominican Republic.

In 2015, Miranda was honored as a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award, a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 individuals, working in any field, who have shown "extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction" and are citizens or residents of the United States.

In March 2016, a day after a meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama, Miranda joined New York Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic lawmakers to call for congressional action to back a Senate bill in Washington that would allow Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy and significantly ease its $70 billion debt burden.

Theatre credits

Acting

• In the Heights, Usnavi
  • Wesleyan University, April 20-22, 1999
  • Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, 2005
  • Off-Broadway, Feb. 8 - Jul. 15, 2007
  • Broadway, Feb. 14, 2008 - Feb. 15, 2009
  • US tour, 2009-2010
  • Broadway, Dec. 25, 2010 - Jan. 9, 2011
• Merrily We Roll Along, Charley, Encores!, Feb. 8-9, 2012
• The Hamilton Mixtape, Alexander Hamilton, Vassar Reading Festival, July 27, 2013
• 21 Chump Street, Narrator, Brooklyn Academy of Music, June 7, 2014
• Tick, Tick... Boom!, Jon, Encores!, June 25-28, 2014
• Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton
  • Off-Broadway, Jan. 20 - May 3, 2015
  • Broadway, Aug. 6, 2015 - present
• Les Misérables, Loud Hailer, Broadway, January 24, 2016

Writing

• In the Heights, Music/Lyrics/Original Concept
• West Side Story, Translations (2011)
• Working, wrote two songs added to the Chicago production (2011)
• Bring It On the Musical, Music/Lyrics
• 21 Chump Street, Book/Music/Lyrics
• Hamilton, Book/Music/Lyrics/Arrangements

Film credits

Acting

• Clayton's Friends, Pete, (1996)
• The Electric Company Rapper, (2009)
• The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Reggie, (2012)
• The Polar Bears, Jak, (2012) - short
• 200 Cartas, Raul, (2013)
• This American Life: One Night Only at BAM, Narrator, (2014)
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Shag Kava, (2015)
• Studio Heads, Lin-Manuel Miranda (2016) - short
• Speech and Debate, The Genie, 2016 (post-production)
• Mary Poppins, Jack, 2017 (pre-production)

Writer

• Clayton's Friends, screenplay, 1996
• This American Life: One Night Only at BAM, screenplay, 2014
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens, special featured composer, 2015
• Moana, composer/songwriter, 2016

Producer

• Clayton's Friends, 1996
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens, select songs only, 2015

Director

• Clayton's Friends, 1996

Editor

• Clayton's Friends, 1996

Television credits

Actor

• The Sopranos, Bellman, 1 episode, 2007
• Sesame Street, Freddy Flapman, 1 episode, 2009; Lamb-Manuel Miranda, 1 episode, 2012.
• House, M.D., Juan "Alvie" Alvarez, 3 episodes, 2009-10
• The Electric Company, Mario/himself, 17 episodes, 2009-10
• Modern Family, Guillermo, 1 episode, 2011
• Submissions Only, Auditioner #1, 1 episode, 2012
• Freestyle Love Supreme, Lin-Manuel, TV movie, 2012
• Do No Harm, Ruben Marcado, 11 episodes, 2013
• Smash, himself, 1 episode, 2013
• How I Met Your Mother, Gus, 1 episode, 2013
• 67th Tony Awards, Singer, TV special, 2013
• Inside Amy Schumer, Himself, 1 episode, 2016
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Himself, 1 episode, 2016

Writer

• The Electric Company, composer, 2009
• Freestyle Love Supreme, lyricist, TV movie, 2012
• 67th Tony Awards, composer, TV special, 2013
• Sesame Street, composer/lyricist, 1 episode, 2014

Books

• Hamilton: The Revolution (2016) with Jeremy McCarter

Discography

• In the Heights (original Broadway cast recording), 2008
  • Winner of the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album
• 21 Chump Street (original Broadway cast recording), 2014
• Hamilton (original Broadway cast recording), 2015
  • Also producer
  • Peaked at #1 US Top Cast Albums, #1 US Top Rap Albums, #11 on US Top Albums
  • Certified gold
  • Winner of the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album
• Jabba Flow, 2016 (single)

Awards and achievements

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2007	Theatre World Award	Outstanding Debut Performance	In the Heights	Won
	Broadway.com Audience Awards	Favorite off-Broadway Musical		Won
	Clarence Derwent Award	Most Promising Male Performer		Won
	Obie Award	Music and Lyrics		Won
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Ensemble Performance		Won
		Outstanding Lyrics		Nominated
		Outstanding Music		Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Musical		Won
	Lucille Lortel Award	Outstanding Musical		Won
2008	Tony Award	Best Actor in a Musical		Nominated
		Best Original Score		Won
		Best Musical		Won
	Broadway.com Audience Awards	Favorite New Broadway Musical		Nominated
		Favorite New Song ("In the Heights")		Won
		Favorite Breakthrough Performance (Male)		Won
		Favorite Ensemble Cast		Nominated
		Favorite Leading Actor in a Musical		Nominated
	Dramatists Guild of America	Frederick Loewe Award		Won
2009	Grammy Award	Best Musical Theater Album		Won
	Pulitzer Prize	Drama		Nominated
2013	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Lyrics	Bring It On the Musical	Nominated
	Tony Award	Best Musical		Nominated
	Broadway.com Audience Awards	Favorite New Musical		Nominated
2014	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Original Song	Sesame Street	Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics	67th Tony Awards	Won
2015	Lucille Lortel Awards	Outstanding Musical	Hamilton	Won
		Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical		Won
	Outer Critics Circle Awards	Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical		Won
		Taylor Fox's Heart Award		Won
		Outstanding New Score		Won
	Drama League Awards	Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical		Nominated
		Distinguished Performance		Nominated
	Drama Desk Awards	Outstanding Musical		Won
		Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Nominated
		Outstanding Music		Won
		Outstanding Lyrics		Won
		Outstanding Book of a Musical		Won
	New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards	Best Musical		Won
	Off Broadway Alliance Awards	Best New Musical		Won
	Obie Awards	Best New American Theatre Work		Won
	Edgerton Foundation New American Play Awards			Won
	The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation	The MacArthur Fellowship		Won
2016	Grammy Award	Best Musical Theater Album		Won
	Dramatists Guild of America Awards	Frederick Loewe Award for Dramatic Composition		Won
	Edward M. Kennedy Prize	Drama Inspired by American History		Won
	Laurence Olivier Award	Outstanding Achievement in Music	In the Heights	Won
	Pulitzer Prize	Drama	Hamilton	Won
	Drama League Awards	Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical		Won
		Distinguished Performance		Won
	Broadway.com Audience Awards	Favorite New Musical		Won
		Favorite Leading Actor in a Musical		Won
		Favorite Onstage Pair (with Phillipa Soo)		Nominated
		Favorite Onstage Pair (with Leslie Odom, Jr.)		Won
		Favorite New Song ("Alexander Hamilton")		Nominated
		Favorite New Song ("My Shot")		Nominated
		Favorite New Song ("The Room Where It Happens")		Nominated
		Favorite New Song ("Satisfied")		Won
		Favorite New Song ("The Schuyler Sisters")		Nominated
	Tony Award	Best Actor in a Musical		Pending
		Best Book of a Musical		Pending
		Best Original Score		Pending
		Best Musical		Pending

[ Source: Wikipedia ]