The Untold Truth Of Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda has a rich family history, so for fun, a popular genealogist named Megan Smolenyak dove into the actor's family tree. After a month of research on Miranda's roots, "she was particularly struck by the story of his ancestors David Towns and his partner Sophie, a former slave from Virginia, and the mixed race children they had together," The Guardian reported. On this side of his family, Miranda had many ancestors who were Mexican. 

The other side of Miranda's family was of Puerto Rican heritage. In fact, Miranda's parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York before Miranda was born, per Rolling Stone. Smolenyak observed to The Guardian that her research found Miranda's family to be "multiracial, multicultural and multinational. In short, they have a lot in common with his Puerto Rican forebears." In response to her report on his family, Miranda thanked the genealogist in a tweet that said, "My mom's side of the family has a history as complicated as our country itself." Miranda also clarified on Twitter that he has a mixed heritage beyond his strong roots from Puerto Rico. "I'm Puerto Rican AND Mexican," he posted.

Unsurprisingly, with his gift for wordplay, Miranda's name was inspired by a famous poet. He shared a photo on Twitter revealing that his name came from Jose Manuel Torres Santiago's poem "Nana roja para mi hijo Lin Manuel." The poet even wrote a note to the young Miranda in 1993.

Part of Lin-Manuel Miranda's entertainment universe has been his collection of tweets with words of encouragement. For example, one tweet read, "Good morning. Your mind is your home and no one else's. Furnish it as you wish. Set the temp so you're comfortable." Miranda's happy thoughts usually started off with the words "Good morning" or "Good night." During an interview on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," Miranda revealed the origin of his idea. "I started saying good morning and good night on Twitter in like 2011, just as a way of keeping myself honest and keeping myself from being on it 24 hours a day. I would just be like 'good night, I'm going to bed.' It was sort of like a way of clocking office hours for myself," Miranda said.

Going one step further, Miranda decided to compile his daily tweets in a complete book called "Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You." This collection of quotes is likely available at his book store in NYC. In partnership with the director of "Hamilton" and a couple other colleagues, Miranda bought a bookstore to give the neighborhood a creative space, especially with the arts in mind. ​​"My hope is that we can continue to be a hub for the theater community," Miranda told The New York Times. "I don't expect we'll make a great fortune, but I hope with the coffee we'll break even," he admitted.

One setback from the popularity of "Hamilton" was that as tickets became increasingly rare and expensive, it became more difficult for some patrons to see the show. But Lin-Manuel Miranda knew his hit musical could be a way for youngsters to become more interested in history through song, raps, and dancing. "If we can excite curiosity in students, there's no telling what can happen next," Miranda told The New York Times. "Not to say we're going to make 1,300 history majors or 1,300 musical theater writers every time we do the show, but hopefully they will take away how much Hamilton did with his life in the time that he had," Miranda added. So, he worked to make the show more accessible to students, and producers sponsored student-only matinee shows.

Beyond inspiring others through songs and tales of the founding fathers, Miranda also used his influence for other charitable projects. "For me, philanthropy and artistic inspiration kind of come from the same place," Miranda told The Associated Press. One specific example was in coordination with his family, who all "awarded a total of $225,000 in grants to immigrant rights groups and policy reform advocates throughout the country."

Another one of Miranda's good deeds was helping during the COVID-19 pandemic. The actor and his father helped create a vaccination site in Times Square to facilitate a quicker comeback for Broadway shows after a long period of closure due to restrictions, per Parade.

Rapper Common recalled his experience with Lin-Manuel Miranda on the set of "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" when speaking with The New Yorker: "I will always remember us freestyling during lunchtime on the set and thinking, 'Wow, this guy is talented.'" Miranda used his love of rap and hip-hop to create one of the most unique Broadway musicals of all time with "Hamilton," but his passion for rap started long before he became a Broadway star. 

He was part of Freestyle Love Supreme. The improvisational hip-hop group featured Miranda, Thomas Kail, Christopher Jackson, and Anthony Veneziale. The four guys used the group after college "to experiment with theatre and craft their own unique musical sound" (via Sundance). From the beginning, Freestyle Love Supreme filmed their story, which eventually became a documentary called "We Are Freestyle Love Supreme." The film featured 15 years of footage showcasing the rise of Miranda and his group mates. For example, Jackson also starred in Miranda's musicals "In the Heights" and "Hamilton." The end of the documentary showed clips from the "much-anticipated reunion performances in New York City in 2019." In the intervening years, Miranda obviously became famous, but he continued to perform at Joe's Pub theater and other New York City venues, The New Yorker reported.

The film's director, Andrew Fried, told NPR: "They were creating a language onstage, and it's a language now that I think has become very familiar to us because 'In the Heights' exists and because 'Hamilton' is as ubiquitous as it is."

Growing up, Lin-Manuel Miranda enjoyed watching TV sitcoms including "Family Ties" and more serious series such as "NYPD Blue" with his parents. For music, Miranda listened to old-school hip-hop including the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, thanks to his older sister. As for movies, Miranda devoured action films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Seagal, Parade reported. 

One reason he loved these action films was for the stunts. "I actually wanted to be a stuntman when I was a kid, before I discovered my aversion to anything remotely dangerous," Miranda admitted to Playbill. But of course, he grew up going to Broadway shows. The first musical he ever saw was "Les Misérables" in 1987. "I was also jealous that there was a little kid onstage [the character of Gavroche] and thinking, 'Wait, how do you get that job in theater?!'" he told Parade. The show helped him tap into emotion. Miranda remembered crying from the stage drama.

Outside of entertainment, Miranda would visit his parents' native Puerto Rico. The young boy still had family on the island and reportedly "spent a month every year there visiting his grandparents" (per PBS). On those visits, Miranda picked up Spanish thanks to "sink or swim" immersion in the language, he told The New York Times. During the school year in the U.S., Miranda attended "the elite public Hunter College elementary and high schools on the Upper East Side."

According to Lin-Manuel Miranda, he wrote his first musical as a 16-year-old. The writer shared on Twitter that his first story "involved a dissected fetal pig rising up for revenge." Though the tale didn't make it to Broadway, it seems to have kickstarted Miranda's love for creating stories set to music. In his primary education, Miranda became more and more interested in writing and composing. Then, Miranda became even more serious about creating something memorable while attending Wesleyan University. 

"I remember thinking that I really had to leave with more than a degree," Miranda confessed to Parade. He told the publication that he "watched my parents struggle to pay for my sister's education and was keenly aware that my dad suddenly had three new jobs when I entered school." Miranda's drive paid off, and by the time he was a sophomore, he had penned the initial draft of "In the Heights." The actor then finished his "dream show" after graduating from college. "It's as simple and as complicated as writing what you know," Miranda said about his first Broadway musical.

For "Hamilton," Miranda didn't know right away that it would become one the biggest hits on Broadway. It started as a single song in collaboration with the director Thomas Kail, who also directed "In the Heights." Kail reportedly encouraged Miranda to run with the historical theme, which then became "a 10-track mixtape" and, of course, a celebrated "46-song musical," per The Guardian.

One of the main reasons Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote his musical "In the Heights" was because at the time, "there was nothing in the musical canon with an all-Latino cast," he told Parade. Miranda then continued his quest for more diverse casting in his follow-up musical, "Hamilton." The show broke traditions, especially with actors of multiple races starring as historically white U.S. founding fathers.

After the release of the film adaption of "In the Heights," Miranda and those responsible for the film were criticized for underrepresenting Afro-Latinos in the casting process. "I didn't realize until making this movie that I didn't really get to see myself or people that look like my siblings that are darker than me on screen," Leslie Grace, an actor from the film, told The Root. In response to criticisms, the movie's director John Chu said, "When we were looking at the cast we tried to get the people who were best for those roles." Chu also told The Root, "We're not going to get everything right in a movie. We tried our best on all fronts of it." 

On Twitter, Miranda posted an apology. He also addressed the issue in an interview for The New Yorker. He said about general critiques of exclusion, "Every time you make a frame, people are going to point out what's not in the frame. And you go and you make the next thing. That's all that you can do, keep your head down and keep making s***."

Right before "Hamilton" took Broadway by storm, Lin-Manuel Miranda appeared in the stage version of "Tick, Tick... Boom!" A rehearsal video shows Miranda performing the musical by Johnathan Larson alongside "In the Heights" performer Karen Olivo and Miranda's future "Hamilton" cast mate Leslie Odom, Jr.

While he was in the process of creating "Hamilton," Miranda had the opportunity to speak with the late Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim. Reportedly, Sondheim asked Miranda what projects he was working on. "I'm working on this hip-hop album, like a 'Jesus Christ Superstar' concept album about Alexander Hamilton," Miranda told the composer (as he relayed to The New Yorker). Sondheim responded, "No one will expect that from you. That's amazing. Keep writing that." According to Miranda, he would periodically send Sondheim early versions of the songs and other ideas to get feedback from the famous composer. Unsurprisingly, Sondheim loved the music and lyrics that Miranda kept sending. The novelty of using hip-hop in the show particularly delighted Sondheim. "I remember he was really knocked out by 'Say No to This.' That one word of encouragement keeps you going for two years. That's fuel," Miranda explained. 

Of course, "Hamilton" became a hit thanks to Miranda. But the massive success meant that the expectations were sky-high to produce another hit. Instead, he followed the advice of movie director Robert Rodriguez who said that "the best way to avoid a sophomore slump is to do so much different s*** that no one can tell what your sophomore project is."