Lin-Manuel Miranda (born January 16, 1980) is an American composer, lyricist, librettist, rapper, and actor, best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton.

Miranda wrote the music and lyrics for the musical In the Heights, which opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in March 2008. Miranda's written work for the show earned him numerous accolades, including the 2008 Tony Award for Best Original Score and the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Further, Miranda's performance in the show's lead role of Usnavi earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

From August 6th 2015 to July 9th 2016, Miranda performed on Broadway in the lead role as Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton, a musical for which he wrote the book, music and lyrics—and which earned the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

Miranda played his last performance in Hamilton on July 9, 2016, and the role of Alexander Hamilton was taken over by previous alternate Javier Muñoz. Miranda vowed to return to the show in the near future.

Lin-Manuel was born in New York City of Puerto Rican descent. He attended Hunter College High School and Wesleyan University. He founded a hip-hop theatre troupe called "Freestyle Love Supreme". Miranda also wrote, directed, and acted in an independent film called Clayton's Friends (1996). In 2007, Miranda made an appearance on an episode of television series The Sopranos. Lin-Manuel has also worked as an English teacher at his old high school, written for the Manhattan Times as a columnist and restaurant reviewer, and composed for commercials. In 2008, Lin-Manuel was invited by composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz to contribute two new songs to a revised version of Schwartz and Nina Faso's 1978 musical "Working" which opened in May at the Asolo Repertory Theater in Sarasota, FL.

As of 2017, he has finished filming Mary Poppins Returns which is in post-production and is slated to be released December 25th 2018. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.