Lin-Manuel Miranda (born January 16, 1980) is an American composer, lyricist, librettist, rapper, actor, and director of Puerto Rican descent.
He is best known for creating (and starring in) the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton (along with its companion album, The Hamilton Mixtape, and successive releases under the umbrella term of The Hamildrops). He's also become a firm part of the Disney family, having written music for Moana and Encanto while also starring as Jack the Lamplighter in Mary Poppins Returns and appearing on Ducktales 2017 as the voice of Gizmoduck. He made his film directorial debut in 2021 with tick, tick... BOOM!.
He's got a lot of irons in the fire beyond those projects, starring as Lee Scoresby in His Dark Materials (a rare non-musical project) and also collaborating with Alan Menken on a live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid to name a few.
So far, Miranda has won a Pulitzer, two Emmys, five Grammys, and three Tonys, an Annie Award, 2 Olivier Awards, and a Kennedy Centre Honor as well as a MacArthur "Genius Grant."
All he needs is an Oscar, and he'll be only the third person ever to become a PEGOT, after Richard Rodgers and Marvin Hamlisch.
Miranda was also instrumental in drumming up popular support to save Brooklyn Nine-Nine from cancellation and was cast as one of Amy's brothers as thanks.note
He is also very active on Twitter and Instagram.
Related tropes:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: A staple of his work, with lines like "rebels at a revel", "a middle of a military mess", etc..
- As Himself:
- Made a cameo in Difficult People, confronting Billy Eichner for faking a blurb from him saying Eichner's character's play is "better than Hamilton".Billy: Can I get tickets to Hamilton?
Lin: NO! - He has a guest appearance in Curb Your Enthusiasm where he and Larry David get into a confrontation regarding a vacation rental and the situation escalates in the two facing off in a duel.
- Appears in the TV version of My Brother, My Brother and Me, reading a poem of Candlenights. It eventually goes off the rails, and he realizes that Griffin tried to make him say he'd give him his Tony.
- Made a cameo in Difficult People, confronting Billy Eichner for faking a blurb from him saying Eichner's character's play is "better than Hamilton".
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Describes his first guest appearance on Sesame Street as this. He got to star with his favorite Muppet characters but played the villain of the episode.
- Book Ends: "G'morning. G'night."
- Creator Thumbprint: Themes of immigration and legacy feature prominiently in his work.
- Genre-Busting: His musicals are notable for mixing hip-hop, rap, and Latin music together with more standard showtune fare.
- Identical Stranger: People has noted his resemblance to Riz Ahmed, to the point where he regards Ahmed as his "British Counterpart".
- Mama's Boy: Miranda is extremely close with his parents, as evidenced by their appearing with him in several of his TV interviews. He even took his mother to the Oscars instead of, say, his wife (although his wife was presumably okay with it).
- Memetic Hand Gesture: "Greatjob", a reference to this My Brother, My Brother and Me bit.
- Multiethnic Name: His name comes from a poem by Puerto Rican poet Jose Manuel Torres Santiago, "Nana roja para mi hijo Lin Manuel". The poem is written for a mixed-race child, born of a Vietnamese and Hispanic couple. "Lin" is the Vietnamese part. (In actual Vietnamese, it can be "Linh" (most likely, as it's a common name) or Lĩnh. "Lin" is the Chinese romanization of "Linh").
- Patter Song: Many of the raps he writes, like "Guns and Ships" from Hamilton and "You're Welcome" from Moana, feature very fast sections that require the performer to rap like a machine gun. He also demonstrates his ability to rap rapid-fire lyrics in "A Cover is Not the Book" from Mary Poppins Returns.
- Promoted Fanboy:
- One of the few TV shows he watches is Brooklyn Nine-Nine, so naturally they cast him as Amy's brother David.
- He got to play the Loudhailer (who isn't seen onstage) in the Broadway production of Les Misérables on January 24, 2016.
- A lifelong fan of "Weird Al" Yankovic, not only did they collaborate several times, but they even became best friends.
- In interviews, he's volunteered that the celebrity encounter that freaked him out the most was his first meeting with Al. As Conan O'Brien pointed out, "You have met presidents now!"
- Minutes after Al publicly announced that Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was in production, Lin texted Al asking for a role in the movie. Who needs to wait for an invitation?
- He's a self-admitted huge fan of DuckTales and was excited to voice Gizmoduck in the reboot.
- Remake Cameo: He plays Piragua Guy in the 2020 movie version of In the Heights, which stars Anthony Ramos as Usnavi (the role Miranda originally played on Broadway).
- "Sesame Street" Cred: He's done quite a bit of work for the show, playing occasional roles and singing the theme song to Murray Has a Little Lamb.
- Sophisticated as Hell:
- He's equal parts Hip-Hop fanatic and theater fanboy, and it shows not only on his Twitter but also in In the Heights and Hamilton, but especially the latter, which features references to Beyoncé, The Notorious B.I.G., and DMX, as well as In the Heights, The Last Five Years, and The Pirates of Penzance.
- Lin will occasionally host hip-hop/musical mashups on his twitter, which consist of him tweeting and retweeting mashed-up lyrics of a designated hip hop artist and musical. These naturally are Sophisticated as Hell. Most notably of these #JayMiz, which featured lyrics from Jay-Z and Les Misérables.
