Spotlight on HAMILTON: Catching Up with Lin-Manuel Miranda

By: Jul. 03, 2020
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Hamilton is here! Beginning today, Disney+ is broadcasting the hugely-anticipated Hamilton, captured live on stage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in 2016.

The original Broadway cast appearing in the film include Tony Award winners Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton; Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson; Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler; Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr; Tony Award nominees Christopher Jackson as George Washington; Jonathan Groff as King George; Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton; and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds; Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison; and Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton.

History may have its eyes on Hamilton, but today, we have our eyes on the history of its stars. Below take a deep dive into the career of Mr. Hamilton himself, Lin-Manuel Miranda!

Born and raised in New York City, Miranda attended Wesleyan University, where in 1999, and early draft of his destined-for-Broadway musical In the Heights was performed.

In 2003, Miranda co-founded Freestyle Love Supreme, a hip-hop improv group that has toured the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as the Aspen, Melbourne and Montreal Comedy Festivals. The group created a limited television series for Pivot in 2014 and went on to make its Broadway debut in 2019.

In addition to working as an English teacher at his former high school, he also made several early appearances on television. In 2007, he made a guest appearance on The Sopranos and in 2009, he played Alvie, Gregory House's roommate in a psychiatric hospital, in the two-hour season six premiere episode of House.

After success off-Broadway, In the Heights transferred to Broadway in 2008. It was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, winning four, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

Miranda went on to write the Spanish language dialogue and lyrics for the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story. In 2012, he returned to Broadway to co-write the music and lyrics for Bring It On: The Musical with Tom Kitt and Amanda Green.

That summer, Miranda appeared in Merrily We Roll Along, in the role of Charley, in an Encores! staged concert at New York City Center. In 2014, he returned to Encores! for the revival of Jonathan Larson's Tick, Tick... Boom!.

Miranda went on to make several television appearances in Modern Family, Do No Harm, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and How I Met Your Mother. He also appeared in a small role in the Walt Disney Pictures live-action film The Odd Life of Timothy Green.

While on a vacation in 2008, Miranda read Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton and, inspired by the book, wrote a rap about Hamilton that he performed for the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word, in 2009.

Hamilton: An American Musical premiered off-Broadway at The Public Theater in January 2015, directed by Thomas Kail. Miranda wrote the book and score, and starred as the title character. The show began previews on Broadway in July 2015 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre and officially opened on August 6, 2015.

Hamilton won the Tony Award for Best Musical; Miranda won the Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical and received a nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. Miranda also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical, and the Hamilton cast album won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

From 2014 to 2016, Miranda collaborated with Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina on the songs for Disney's Moana. For the song "How Far I'll Go", Miranda received Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, Oscar, and Grammy Award nominations.

Miranda hosted Saturday Night Live on October 8, 2016, and played himself in two episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2017, receiving Emmy Award nominations for both appearances.

In 2018, he starred opposite Emily Blunt in Mary Poppins Returns as Jack, a lamplighter and former apprentice to Bert.

In 2019, Miranda played Lee Scoresby in the HBO television adaptation of His Dark Materials.

Lin's future projects include new songs for a live-action remake of The Little Mermaid and Sony Pictures' Vivo. He will also make his debut as a film director with an adaptation of Tick, Tick... Boom!, to be scripted by Dear Evan Hansen librettist Steven Levenson. A film adaptation of In the Heights has been in development since 2008 when Universal Pictures acquired the film rights. Previously set for release in summer 2020, it will now hit theatres on June 18, 2021.

Sign up for Disney+ today for your chance to catch Leslie and even more of the original cast of Broadway's biggest hit from home on July 3!


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