Below is a compiled list of the most interesting facts about Lin-Manuel Miranda. Check it out!
Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the first incarnation of “In the Heights” his sophomore year at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Off-Broadway, “In The Heights” received nine Drama Desk nominations, including best music, best lyrics, and it won the award for outstanding ensemble performance; received the Lucille Lortel Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for best musical; received the Obie Award for outstanding music and lyrics; received a Theater World Award for outstanding debut Performance and the Clarence Derwent Award both for Mr. Miranda’s performance. He is the recipient of the 2007 ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. He has appeared on The Sopranos (1999) and Sex and the City (1998), House M.D. (2004), and The Electric Company (2006). He is also a co-founding member of Freestyle Love Supreme, a hip-hop comedy group that tours comedy festivals all over the world.
Interesting Facts about Lin-Manuel Miranda
- Winner of two Tony Awards in 2016. He won for Book of a Musical and Score (Music and/or Lyrics) for his work on “Hamilton”. He received another nomination that year – for Actor (Musical), also for his work on “Hamilton”.
- Amanda Green (Lyricist); Tom Kitt (Music) and he were awarded the 2012 Back Stage Garland Award for Musical Score for “Bring It On: The Musical” at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
- Nominated for the 2019 Golden Globe Award in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy category for his role as Jack in Mary Poppins Returns (2018), but lost to Christian Bale for Vice (2018).
- Miranda won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for writing the book, music, and lyrics for Hamilton: An American Musical. The citation read, “A landmark American musical about the gifted and self-destructive founding father Alexander Hamilton whose story becomes both contemporary and irresistible.” Since the drama Pulitzer was first awarded in 1918, it has only been given to a musical nine times; the musicals before Hamilton to win a Pulitzer were: George and Ira Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing (opened in 1931; awarded in 1932), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific (opened in 1949; awarded in 1950), Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s Fiorello! (opened in 1959; awarded in 1960), Frank Loesser’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (opened in 1961; awarded in 1962), Marvin Hamlisch, Ed Kleban, James Kirkwood, and Nicholas Dante’s A Chorus Line (opened in 1975; awarded in 1976), Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George (opened in 1984; awarded in 1985), Jonathan Larson’s Rent (workshopped in 1993; opened and awarded in 1996), and Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s Next to Normal (opened in 2008; awarded in 2010).
- As of February 27, 2017, Lin-Manuel Miranda is only an Oscar win away from attaining the coveted “EGOT” status. The acronym EGOT refers to people who have won all four of the entertainment industry’s major awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. Miranda won his first Emmy (along with Tom Kitt) in 2014 for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the song “Bigger!,” written for the 67th Tony Awards. He won his first Grammy in 2009 for Best Musical Theater Album for “In the Heights.” His first Tony Award was also for “In the Heights”–he won Best Original Score in 2008. His first Oscar nomination was in 2017 for Best Original Song (“How Far I’ll Go”) from the movie Moana, though he did not win that Oscar. Miranda is also one of the very few EGOT candidates who has also won a Pulitzer Prize. Of all the people in history who have ever attained full EGOT status, only Marvin Hamlisch and Richard Rodgers also won a Pulitzer. The list of people who (like Miranda) have won a Pulitzer and are otherwise only missing one of the EGOT awards is almost as short; it is: Oscar Hammerstein II (missing an Emmy); Frank Loesser (missing an Emmy); and Stephen Sondheim (missing an Emmy). Of all of these men, only Sondheim and Miranda were still alive as of February 2017.
- Is a member of the New York-based hip-hop comedy troupe Freestyle Love Supreme with Chris Sullivan, Bill Sherman, and Chris Jackson.
- Was nominated for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play “In the Heights” collaborating with Quiara AlegrÃa Hudes.
- Won the Tony Award for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) for “In the Heights” (2008).
- Completely rhymed his Tony Award acceptance speech for original score (Music or Lyrics) for “In the Heights” (2008).
- Attended and graduated from Hunter College High School in New York City.
- His musical “In the Heights” at the Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2017 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Midsize Music Production.
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre at 6243 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on November 30, 2018.
Personal Quotes by Lin-Manuel Miranda
The reason ‘Hamilton’ works is because there is no distance between that story that happened 200-some-odd years ago and now, because it looks like America now. It helps create a connection that wouldn’t have been there if it was 20 white guys on stage.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda
The fun for me in collaboration is, one, working with other people just makes you smarter; that’s proven.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda
West Wing’ was huge. Like ‘Hamilton,’ it pulls back the curtain on how decision-making happens at the highest level, or at least how you hope it would be. The amount of information Aaron Sorkin packs into a scene gave me this courage to trust the audience to keep up.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda
Sometimes a line enters your head, and you’re so grateful for it. You go online to check to see if anyone wrote it before you. You must have stolen it.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda
Making words rhyme for a living is one of the great joys of my life… That’s a superpower I’ve been very conscious of developing. I started at the same level as everybody else, and then I just listened to more music and talked to myself until it was an actual superpower I could pull out on special occasions.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda