15 Surprising Things You Probably Didn't Know About Lin-Manuel Miranda (2023)

Lin-Manuel Miranda's name was inspired by a poem written about the Vietnam War.

The name Lin-Manuel derives from the poem "Red Mother for My Son Lin Manuel" written by the Puerto Rican poet José Manuel Torres Santiago about the Vietnam War.

Miranda, who was born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, shared a photo of the poem on Twitter in 2016 with a handwritten dedication from the poet himself.written: "The history of my name."

In 2016, Miranda traveled to Puerto Rico andRead his poem of the same nameat a poetry festival.

Miranda co-founded a hip-hop improv comedy troupe when she was in college.

While she was a student at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Miranda founded the hip-hop improvisational comedy troupe with a group of friends.Primordial freestyle love.

According to a 2019 report, the group was conceived in 2003 during rehearsal breaks for Miranda's musical "In The Heights".New YorkerArticle. With the help of a backing keyboardist, beatboxing and freestyle rapping, the members occasionally used songs that the audience wrote on pieces of paper as inspiration.

To celebrate its 15th anniversary, Freestyle Love Supreme continuedBroadwayin the 2019/20 and 2020 season a documentary,“We are the best freestyle”A synopsis of the group's history was released.

He wrote the draft for his first musical "In the Heights" in the second year of his studies.

During a Q&A session in 2012 withHarvard CrimsonMiranda said he wrote the first draft of the musical, a hip-hop life story about a predominantly Latino neighborhood in Washington Heights, New York, during his sophomore year at Wesleyan University.

“I had the kind of dream situation of someone writing a show in school and finishing it professionally, which doesn't happen often,” Miranda told The Crimson.

"In the Heights" ran on Broadway from 2008 to 2011. In 2021 it was made into a feature film starring Anthony Ramos. Miranda played Piragüero in the film, which she also produced.

Before becoming a Broadway staple, Miranda was an English teacher.

Miranda worked as a teacher at her alma mater, Hunter College High School on Manhattan's Upper East Side, before hitting it big.

In the same Q&A session withHarvard Crimson, Miranda added that it turned out"On the heights"in seventh grade English class. said MirandaEducation and career newsthat being a teacher was one of the most rewarding jobs he had ever had.

"It wasn't about standing in front of the class and all eyes are on you, that's not how great classes happen," Miranda told the outlet. He continued, “The best teaching moments are when you're not talking a lot, when you're encouraging discussion and keeping the ball in the air so the kids can draw pictures of each other. Like great actors, great teachers know that it's not about being the center of attention, it's about being part of the moment and being present.

Miranda also supported herself by writing campaign jingles for politicians.

Before writing Grammy and Tony winning musicals, Miranda earned some money to support her burgeoning career writing jingles for politicians.

Miranda's father, Luis A. Miranda, Jr., is a political adviser in New York who has advised former Bronx Borough President and mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer and Senator Adriano Espaillat, according to a 2012 report.New York TimesArticle. Thanks to her father's political connections, Miranda's jingles have been used by politicians such as Ferrer, former State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, and former Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Lin-Manuel Miranda only missed one Hamilton performance in 2015. Sadly, he also missed the biggest celebrities in the audience.

It was a rarity for Lin-Manuel to miss Hamilton performances, where he played the title role of Alexander Hamilton in most US and Puerto Rico performances. But on October 21, 2015, Miranda was unable to perform because she was ill. On December 20, 2018Entrevista no "The Graham Norton Show",Miranda said, "I got sick once the year I was performing and I missed Beyoncé and Jay-Z."

Miranda told Norton that she was trying to get out of bed to perform even when the temperature was 104 degrees. Javier Muñoz, who replaced Miranda after resigning on July 9, 2016, took his place.

Miranda's wife, lawyer and scientist Vanessa Nadal, had a crush on her school.

Miranda and Nadal attended Hunter College High School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. According to a 2010New York TimesArticle, Miranda was in love with Nadal, who was two years younger than him, but never got up the courage to talk to her.

"She was beautiful and I'm famous for looking down on women I find attractive," Miranda told the Times. "I have a total lack of play."

After high school, Miranda went to Wesleyan and Nadal to MIT. The two only spoke in 2005, when Miranda found Nadal again on Facebook. He reached out and invited her to one of her concerts and five years later the two were married. Miranda and Nadal now have two children together.

A video of Miranda singing to his wife at their wedding has gone viral.

Long before he was known worldwide as Alexander Hamilton and before he even played Usnavi De La Vega from "In the Heights", Lin-Manuel Miranda found internet fame thanks to a viral wedding performance.

When he and wife Vanessa Nadal got married in 2010, he surprised her by singing and dancing to the song.„To Life“ de „Fiddler on the Roof“.AfterLos New York Times, the video had 2.5 million views after Miranda's wedding; now it has over 7.4 million.

Miranda appeared on an episode of How I Met Your Mother and, you guessed it, she had an amazing rap scene.

In "Bedtime Stories", the 11th episode of the ninth and final season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, Miranda guest-starred as Gus, a passenger on the same bus Marshall (Jason Segel) was traveling on. to go to Barney and Robin's wedding.

When Marshall's son Marvin won't stop crying, Miranda's characterPut some clever rhymesto help the baby sleep.

HIMYM isn't the only show Miranda has appeared on. He isalso faced"House", "Modern Family", "Ducktails", "Saturday Night Live" as host in 2016 and as himself in two hilarious episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm", in which he helped Larry David produce a musical.

Miranda, who composed the music for Disney's animated film Moiana, said The Little Mermaid is why he started writing songs.

Miranda is a huge Disney fan, she said."Good Morning America"host Lara Spencer in 2016 that "The Little Mermaid" was the reason she started writing music.

In 2016, he co-wrote the score for Moiana and worked for co-directors Ron Clements and John Musker, the duo responsible for several Disney films, including The Little Mermaid.

Miranda told GMA that it's important to him and his Opetaia co-writers Tavita Foa'i and Mark Mancina to create an authentic Polynesian soundtrack that represents this region of the world.

“What the directors really conveyed to me was that this is a part of the world that is almost never portrayed on screen, the Pacific Islands, so we want to honor them. We want to make a film they can be proud of and that's something I'm proud to point out,” said Miranda.

But her love for Disney really ended in 2019 when she started writing lyrics for them.The Little Mermaid Live Action Remake.” He is collaborating with the film's original composer, Alan Menken.

He teamed up with Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams to write the song "Jaba Flow".

May 4, 2016 ("Star Wars" Day), Miranda and Abramsperformed the song, written in 'Huttese', the language of Jaba the Hutt, to a crowd of fans waiting outside the Richard Rogers Theater waiting for tickets to 'Hamilton'.

Miranda also revealed that the song is a reference to rapper Shaggy.

"I went to a website that had the whole glossary of Hutt terms, which translates to 'No, lover, lover.' It wasn't me,'" Miranda told the crowd. "It's literally an intergalactic shaggy remix."

Miranda and Abrams recorded and released the song "Jaba Flow" under the pseudonym Shag F. Kava. If you're a die-hard "Star Wars" fan, you might have already figured out the name, but for less intense fans, Miranda went for it.bloodin 2019 to explain the deeper meaning.

“Here is the deepest curiosity of Star Wars: SHAG is@jabramsand my children's initials, KAVA, the first syllable of our wives' names. But I had another child. So now... they are SHAG F. KAVA," Miranda's tweet read.

Miranda is about to become the third person to win a PEGOT.

What is a PEGOT, you ask? it's like aego- when someone wins an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony - with the addition of a Pulitzer Prize.

Miranda wonPulitzer,Tony bonus, emmy awards, jGrammythanks to "In The Heights", "Hamilton" and "Moana".

Composers Richard Rodgers and Marvin Hamlisch are currently thejust two peoplewho have already won a PEGOT. Miranda has yet to win an Oscar to qualify for this rare award.

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his work on "Moana" in 2017 and "Charm" in 2022, but did not win.

Although Miranda is popular on Twitter and often becomes a viral meme, the artist does not have an Instagram account.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has an impressive fan base of over 3.5 millionblood. Manuel uses the platform to share words of encouragement, offer hilarious insights into his life, promote and even share his latest projects.Spotify playlistswhich heals to Freestyle Love Supreme.

Miranda's use of the platform even inspired him to release his book.in 2018, a collection of inspirational quotes, many taken directly from his tweets.

Miranda also hasIt became a viral memeon a few occasions, especially after she posted several lip-biting selfies. But despite her popularity online, Miranda has yet to create an Instagram account.

Miranda dove into all kinds of projects, but finally realized his dream of becoming a director with Tick, Tick...Boom!

Renaissance man that he is, Miranda has written and produced musicals and composed songs for several Disney films, including the most recent"Charm,"and has performed both on stage and the big screen. But it might come as a surprise to some that Miranda still hasn't made a movie by 2021.

His directorial debut was the film adaptation of 'Tick, Tick... Boom!' this is an adaptation ofOff-Broadway-Musical por Jonathan Larsonand which premiered on Netflix on November 12, 2021.Interview with Netflix Film ClubPremiered in December 2021, Miranda said he wanted to be a director since he was 3 years old.

But career-wise, Miranda said, "I studied theater rather than film for practical reasons."