30 Lesser-Known Facts About Lin-Manuel Miranda That Will Make You Love Him More

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the man behind the decade-defining musical sensation “Hamilton,” kind of became a household name overnight. But this gifted musician, actor and playwright, has been actively creating for decades, since his school days. With so many accolades to his name, the man has been in the spotlight for a while, still there are things about him kept under wraps. Here are some interesting facts about one of best singer, actor, writer, composer of our generation:

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1.  Miranda is just an Oscar win away from the attaining the “EGOT” status – referring to people who have won all the four major awards of the entertainment industry – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
2.  He won an Emmy award for “Bigger,” three Grammy awards for “In the Heights,” “Hamilton” and “How Far I’ll Go,” three Tony awards for “In the Heights” and “Hamilton,” a Pulitzer Prize for “Hamilton” and two Laurence Olivier Awards for “In the Heights” and “Hamilton.” He also received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for “How Far I’ll Go.”
3.  He was inspired by the Hamilton biography, written by Ron Chernow, and decided to make a musical from Hamilton’s life. He asked Chernow and requested his help in developing the script.
4.  Chernow was initially skeptical about making a musical, and hesitated, despite Miranda constantly stressing that he wanted historians to take Hamilton seriously.
5.  However, after meeting Miranda for the first time, Chernow changed his mind, and decided to help with the script. Even the small doubts he had, totally vanished from his mind, the moment he heard Miranda sing the first song.
6.  He had originally planned the show to be a traditional musical, with both music as well as spoken dialogue. But, with Miranda having difficulty in transition back to dialogue after the eponymous opening number, the show became a sung-through musical.
7.  Being in the cast of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” as David Santiago, Lin-Manuel Miranda was one of the many high-profile people who initiated the Twitter campaign “Defenders of the 99” to get Fox to renew the show.
8.  Lin-Manuel Miranda was born on January 16, 1980 to Luis A. Miranda Jr., and Dr. Luz Towns-Miranda, in New York. His father is a Democratic Party consultant, while his mother is a clinical psychologist.
9.  He went to Hunter College Elementary School and later to Hunter College High School, where journalist Chris Hayes and rapper Immortal Technique was among his classmates.
10.  It was in the year 1999, his sophomore year of college at Wesleyan University that he first wrote the earliest draft of his first Broadway musical “In the Heights.”

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11.  Miranda was honored with the Smithsonian Magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the History category, in the year 2015. Four years later, he was the recipient of the Portrait of a Nation prize from Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
12.  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.
13.  He played the role of Hamilton again for nearly three weeks in Puerto Rico, in the year 2018, even though his run in the role ended in July 2016. The proceeds of the show were donated to artists and art organizations, affected by the Hurricane Maria.
14.  In the 2013 movie “Looking for Maria Sanchez,” the lead role of Raul was specifically written by the director Bruno Irizarry, with Miranda in mind. In fact the director only looked for other actors when Miranda was not able to take the role.
15.  Although he was very much interested in the role of Raul, Miranda had to turn it down, due to his very specific and tight scheduling. Just by pure luck, his schedule all of a sudden opened up for a few weeks, and he immediately took up the role.
16.  For the song “Trip a Little Light Fantastic” from “Mary Poppins Returns,” he got the Jack’s hat throw right on the very first take, which was actually during his rehearsal. It was this shot that ended up in the movie.
17.  Miranda, in his 2016 book “Hamilton: The Revolution,” claimed that the inspiration for the "Hamilton" song "You'll Be Back" was actually from his friendship with Hugh Laurie, his co-star from show “House.”
18.  He had been chatting with Laurie while having drinks, and told him about his wish to write a big breakup letter from King George to the colonies. Laurie kind of improvised without any second thoughts, wagging his finger “Awwww, you’ll be back,” which Miranda filed it away.
19.  His character of David Santiago, in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” speaks fluent Portuguese, for instance “obrigado” which means “thank you.” Miranda himself pronounced the word correctly.
20.  During the filming of “Looking for Maria Sanchez,” the production crew met with a severe problem of rain, followed by mosquitoes. In fact, Miranda came down with dengue fever that led to his hospitalization for a couple of days.

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21.  Despite playing the role of Usnavi in “In the Heights” in Broadway, he confirmed that he will not be portraying the role in the film version, but he plays the role of Piragua Guy.
22.  In the wake of Hurricane Maria, the proceeds from his song “Almost Like Praying” went given to the Hispanic Federation, in an effort to raise $22 million for the rescue and disaster relief in December 2017.
23.  It was reported that Miranda first wanted to write a musical about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, based on the “Team of Rivals” book by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
24.  However, with the 2012 movie “Lincoln” from Steven Spielberg, entering production first, Miranda dropped the idea and decided to write “Hamilton,” the show which took him six years to write.
25.  He claimed the TV series “The West Wing” to have been a great influence on “Hamilton,” as his confidence that audience would be able to keep up came from seeing how much information “The West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin packs into a single scene.
26.  He married his high school friend Vanessa Nadal, a lawyer, in the year 2010. The couple have two sons – Sebastian Miranda born on November 10, 2014, and Francisco Miranda born on February 2, 2018.
27.  The proceeds from his show “Hamilton” are used to support Graham Windham, a nonprofit adoption agency founded by Eliza Schuyler Hamilton. He is also known to perform in their fundraising gala benefits, in an effort to raise funds for children in foster care.
28.  It took almost a year for Miranda to write the song “My Shot” from the “Hamilton,” as he always wanted every couplet in the song to be amazing, describing the song as the moment when Hamilton blows everyone away with the strength of oratory.
29.  In the year 2015, he was honored with the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Wesleyan University, his alma mater. He received an honorary Doctorate of the Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016.
30.  He was honored with an honorary degree from Yeshiva University in Washington Heights, in the year 2009, making him the youngest person to receive an honorary degree from that university.
31.  Lin-Manuel Miranda Net Worth: $80 Million