Lin Manuel Miranda Research Paper

When you think about what you want for your future is there someone you look up to for inspiration? For me this person is Lin Manuel Miranda. Lin is a triple threat; playwright, singer, and actor which are all things I aspire to be. He proved that no matter where you’re from, if you work your hardest you can achieve great things. From a young age Lin’s parents encouraged him to start piano and theatre, which eventually lead to his starts on Broadway and Disney.
Lin Manuel Miranda was born January 16 1980 in New York City. His parents; Luz Towns-Miranda and Luis A. Miranda were both Puerto Rican, which caused for Lin to grow up in a very multicultural environment. When he was just three years old his mother and father both decided to get him started on piano and when he was in eighth grade he took an interest in acting so he started taking theatre classes at his school. The classes quickly lead to Lin discovering an interest in
playwriting. For college Lin studied for a theatre major at Wesleyan University. There, besides acting, he learned how to knit costumes, do cast makeup, paint sets, and run the lights. He did all of this while writing a secret play, that would soon be known as “In the Heights”. Immediately after college he got his first theatre job as an unpaid intern at Repertorio Espanol. Little did Lin know, but his secret play would soon lead to his broadway debut.
“In the Heights” was his first musical to reach Broadway. The musical was about a young man, played by Lin, growing up as a teenager in the rough parts of Puerto Rico. He had used a lot of his grandmother’s stories to really get a connection with what Puerto Rico had been like. After “In the Heights” Lin was hired to help write the score for the Broadway musical “Bring it On”. While on vacation from writing, Lin decided to pick up the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, and started reading. Automatically Lin compared to hard life of Alexander Hamilton to the struggles he often heard in hip hop or rap songs. After this he decided that he would write a modern, hip hop, musical about Hamilton’s life. It took him over one year to write the first song and another year for the second. Finally, after six years of work he was finished writing “Hamilton”. “Hamilton” alone was awarded eleven Tony awards that Lin could add to his four other Tonys from “In the
Heights”.
Lin however, did not stop there and soon teamed up with Disney’s creative team to work on not one, but three popular Disney movies. The first movie he worked on was the animated musical “Moana”. He was hired to write the songs before “Hamilton” had even become so popular. This ended up getting him nominated for the Oscar, Best Original Song, for the hit song “How Far I’ll Go”. During the process of “Moana” Lin also worked and is still working on the new Disney movie “Mary Poppins Returns”. Lin is starring as the lead male and will be working next to Costar Emily Blunt. Lastly, Lin has been hired to write music and co produce for his favorite Disney movie, “The Little Mermaid”. This movie has just started being put together and the release date is still to be determined. From a young age Lin’s parents encouraged him to be involved in theatre and music. This lead to him becoming one of the most well-known people on Broadway and opened doors for him to work with Disney. The world certainly has not seen the last of Lin Manuel Miranda and his hard work and dedication is what makes him so influential to not only me, but to theatre goers all over the world.