Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda is the Tony-winning composer-lyricist of Broadway's In the Heights. In the Heights received four 2008 Tony Awards (including Best Orchestrations, Best Choreography and Best Musical), with Miranda receiving a Tony Award for Best Score, as well as a nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. Off-Broadway, In the Heights received 9 Drama Desk Nominations (including Best Music, Best Lyrics) and an award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance. In the Heights also won the Lucille Lortel Award and Outer Critic's Circle Award for Best Musical. Additionally, Miranda received an Obie Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for the show. In the Heights also took home a 2009 Grammy Award for its Original Broadway Cast Album and was recognized as a Finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
Mr. Miranda is also the co-composer (with Tom Kitt), and co-lyricist (with Amanda Green) of Broadway’s Bring it On: The Musical (2013 Tony nomination - Best Musical, 2013; Drama Desk nomination, Best Lyrics in a Musical). His latest musical, Hamilton, had its world debut production (with book, music and lyrics by Mr. Miranda, in addition to him playing the title role) at a sold-out run at the Public Theater in 2015. The production received a record-breaking 10 Lortel Awards, 3 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 7 Drama Desk Awards, the 2015 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Musical and the 2015 OBIE Award for Best New American Play. Songs from Hamilton were performed throughout its development, first for President Obama and the First Family at the White House in 2009, then at Lincoln Center Theater’s 2012 American Songbook Series, and finally New York Stage and Film’s 2013 Powerhouse Theatre Season at Vassar College. Hamilton transferred to Broadway for an open-ended run at the Richard Rodgers Theatre with previews starting July 13, 2015 and an official opening night on August 6, 2015.
As an actor, Miranda received a 2007 Theater World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance, and the 2007 Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Male Performance courtesy of Actor's Equity Foundation for In The Heights. Miranda also received the ASCAP Foundation's Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. He is a National Arts Club Medal of Honor recipient. In May of 2009, Miranda received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Yeshiva University, the youngest recipient of such an honor in the University’s 123-year history. He also received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Wesleyan University, in 2015. Miranda is currently a Council Member of The Dramatists Guild, serves on the board of Young Playwrights Inc. and has been recently appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to New York City’s Theater Subdistrict Council.
Miranda appeared as Charley Kringas in the 2012 City Center Encores! production of Merrily We Roll Along directed by James Lapine, and can be heard on the 2012 Cast Recording released by PS Classics. He also appeared in the 2014 City Center Encores! Off-Center production of tick, tick… BOOM! in the role of Jon.
Miranda is a co-founder and member of Freestyle Love Supreme, a popular hip-hop improv group that performs regularly in New York City. The group has toured the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as the Aspen, Melbourne and Montreal Comedy Festivals. The group’s eponymous television series premiered on Pivot TV in 2014.
Miranda has contributed new songs to the revival of Stephen Schwartz' Working and worked with Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim on Spanish translations for the 2009 Broadway Revival of West Side Story.
Miranda has lent his voice to the audiobook recordings of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. He also provided the voice of Zak in Coca Cola’s 2013 Polar Bears animated short film. His TV and film credits include The Electric Company, Sesame Street, The Sopranos, House, Modern Family, Do No Harm, Smash, How I Met Your Mother, The Sex and the City Movie, The Odd Life of Timothy Green and 200 Cartas. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2002. He lives in New York City with his wife, son and dog.
