Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American actor, composer, lyricist, and writer, known for creating groundbreaking Broadway musicals and contributing to Disney films, while actively advocating for Puerto Rico. After writing the first draft of his musical In the Heights during his sophomore year at Wesleyan University in 1999, Lin-Manuel Miranda developed it into a critically acclaimed Broadway production. In the Heights previewed in Connecticut in 2005, opened Off-Broadway in 2007, and debuted on Broadway in 2008, earning four Tony Awards, including Best Original Score for Miranda in 2008, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2009. In 2003, Miranda also co-founded Freestyle Love Supreme, a hip-hop improv group that later made its Broadway debut in 2019.

in 2021, and wrote original songs for Disney’s Encanto and voiced the titular character for Vivo that same year. His work on Encanto earned a second Academy Award nomination for ‘Dos Oruguitas’ in 2022. Recently, Miranda wrote additional lyrics for the 2023 Broadway production New York, New York and appeared as Hermes in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He is slated to write songs for Disney’s upcoming Mufasa: The Lion King in 2024.

Miranda has actively leveraged his platform for advocacy, participating in relief efforts for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017.