Lin-Manuel Miranda Biography

Fast Facts

• Studied piano and sang in the school choir while growing up, and in a three-hour medley of plays in a big sixth-grade show, roles included Bernardo in West Side Story and Conrad in Bye Bye Birdie
• Is a founding member of Freestyle Love Supreme, an improvisational, hip-hop comedy troupe that has toured the U
• S
• , Europe, Australia and Canada
• Wrote earliest draft of In the Heights—which would win the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize—in 1999, during his sophomore year in college, where it was first produced
• Presented In the Heights onstage in Waterford, Conn
• , in 2005, and off-Broadway in 2007, the latter winning two Drama Desk Awards (for Ensemble Performance and Choreography) out of nine nominations, before making its Broadway debut in 2008
• Other accolades include the 2007 ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award and a 2007 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance
• Worked with Stephen Sondheim on Spanish translations for some lyrics and dialogue for a 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story
• In 2009, performed at the inaugural White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word, hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama
• Won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his musical Hamilton in 2016