Lin Manuel Miranda
American Composer
Personal Life
Lin Manuel Miranda was born on the 16th January 1980 in New York City. Miranda grew up in a more music-oriented family and was encouraged by his parents and their love of Broadway to take piano lessons. During his time at school, he would participate in student stage productions and slowly develop his passion for the hip-hop genre, with the likes of the Beastie Boys. Miranda would begin to write musicals at this time.
Miranda would attend Wesleyan University and major in theatre studies. While listening, he wrote and directed several other musicals and acted in various other shows. He would write the earliest draft of his first Broadway musical, In The Heights. The show was accepted by the university’s student theatre company and would be developed further with Miranda adding freestyle rap and salsa numbers. The show premiered at the university in 1999.
Career
Miranda worked with director Thomas Kail and playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes to revise In The Heights. The play premiered off-Broadway in 2007 and went to Broadway in March 2008. The musical was nominated for 13 Tony Awards and won four, including Best Musical.
In his newfound fame, Miranda worked with Stephen Sondheim and Stephen Schwartz to contribute new songs to West Side Story and Working, respectively. He worked with Tom Kitt and Amanda Green to bring Bring It On to the stage and worked solo reworking 21 Jump Street into a one-act musical.
In 2008, after reading Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton, Miranda was inspired to create a full-length musical dedicated to the life of the founding father. He first presented a song from the musical in 2009, at the first White House’s Evening of Poetry and Spoken Word. The show would officially open on Broadway in 2015, with Miranda starring in the titular role of Alexander Hamilton. The musical would be Miranda’s most successful work earning him an almost household name and $12.7 million by 2017. Hamilton won the Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical.
After the success of Hamilton, Miranda began his working relationship with Disney. In 2016, Miranda worked on the soundtrack for Moana, which earned him his first Oscar nomination. He contributed music to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker and starred in 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns. In 2021, In The Heights premiered its film adaptation, and Miranda collaborated on Encanto.
Did You Know?
While Miranda may be remembered for being a natural musician. He has an extensive acting career, starring in such comedies as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family. He appeared in the drama, His Dark Materials and made his directorial debut with 2021’s Tick Tick… Boom!
Lin Manuel Miranda Recordings
Quick Guide...
Music Lessons
