Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda was born on January 16, 1980, in New York City to Puerto Rican parents and grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. He attended Hunter College High School and later Wesleyan University, where he began developing the early incarnation of In the Heights as a student project. After college, Miranda continued workshopping In the Heights; the show had an Off-Broadway run and then transferred to Broadway in 2008, where it won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Original Score. Miranda conceived Hamilton after reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton and spent years writing a hip-hop-inflected musical telling Hamilton’s life. Miranda has collaborated extensively with major studios, writing songs for Disney features and has worked as an actor and producer in film and television while also engaging in philanthropy and activism.