Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda 's taste and influences permeate every aspect of the film. Raised in Washington Heights, a Latinx neighborhood in Manhattan, Miranda is the playwright of the original musical In The Heights which the film is adapted from, in which he played Usnavi. In 2008, In The Heights was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards and took home four. While on vacation after the success of Heights, he picked up a copy of Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton for some summer reading. By 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda's new hip-hop musical Hamilton had become a household name. Hamilton is recognized the world over and many jokes have been made about how impossible it is to get tickets. Since leaving his role as Alexander Hamilton, Miranda has hosted Saturday Night Live, co-wrote the score for the Disney movie Moana, published a collection of his good morning and good night tweets with Jonathan Sun (@jomnysun), starred in Mary Poppins Returns alongside Emily Blunt, and produced the limited series Fosse/Verdon, among numerous other things. He will be playing the Piragua Guy in the film.

He is married to Vanessa Nadal and they have two sons, Sebastian and Francisco.

Tweets
Let’s see if they keep their word
 * Just spent an hour and a half taking a selfie w every background actor in today’s scene (2 or three for the particular ones) and I told ‘em “KEEP IT TO YOURSELF TIL THE MOVIE COMES OUT”
 * 1) InTheHeightsMovie
 * In The Heights & Hamilton here for all your July 4 playlist needs if they hand you the aux cord
 * That’s a WRAP on Piraguero! And my last day on set of #InTheHeightsMovie I’m sorry that I cried all during that last take, @jonmchu, but you shouldn’t have put @quiarahudes in my eyeline...wait you did that on purpose (Ay mamá, what do you do when your dreams come true...)

Trivia

 * This was Lin's pre-show ritual when he did the stage production.
 * Lin played Usnavi in the original production alongside Chris Jackson who played Benny. In the film they will be playing the Piragua Guy and Mr. Softy respectively. Taking a page from Leo McGarry 's book, Lin has been known to tell Jackson that 'as long as I got a job, you got a job.'
 * In his 2008 Tony Award acceptance speech, Miranda shouted out Jackson in the lines, "Thank the cast and crew for having each other's back, son / I don't know about God but I believe in Chris Jackson." I Believe in Chris Jackson merchandise is available on Lin's store website, Teerico.
 * Also in the aforementioned freestyle, Miranda said, "Mr. Sondheim look, I made a hat / where there never was a hat / it's a Latin hat at that!"
 * Stephanie Beatriz is a series regular on Brooklyn Nine Nine. Jimmy Smits played Victor Santiago on the show, father of David Santiago, who was played by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Olga Merediz played Julia Diaz, Beatriz's show mother.
 * Lin is a very big fan of the show The West Wing, wherein Smits played President Matt Santos. Bradley Whitford, who was also in Brooklyn Nine Nine, is a regular.
 * Smits is a recurring character in the Star Wars film series and Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the song "Dobra Doompa" for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.
 * Lin wrote for the 2016 Disney movie Moana, where his best friend Chris Jackson was the singing voice of Chief Tui. Phillipa Soo was also a singing voice. All three of them were part of the original Hamilton cast.
 * Lin appeared in an episode of the podcast, "The Ensemblist," on July 2, 2020.