Lin-Manuel Miranda, born 1980

Born New York City

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a groundbreaking composer, playwright, and actor. He is the creator and original star of Broadway’s Hamilton: An American Musical (2015), which won eleven Tony Awards, a Grammy Award, and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize. Inspired by Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, the production mixes history and freestyle rap—an approach Miranda pioneered in his first musical, In the Heights (1999). While some scholars have criticized Hamilton for glossing over slavery, Miranda’s artistic vision, infused with hip-hop and the contemporary ethos of multiethnic representation, has earned him a place in the history of American theater. Moreover, following Hurricane Maria in September 2017, he created the benefit single “Almost Like Praying” to support relief efforts in Puerto Rico.

This portrait of Miranda, in costume for his title role in Hamilton, is one of several photographs that Mark Seliger took for the June 2016 cover story of Rolling Stone.

2019 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Acquisition made possible through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center