Lin-Manuel Miranda

For acclaimed composer, actor and director Lin-Manuel Miranda, creative inspiration comes from a range of sources: his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Hamilton, for example, was a groundbreaking epic that retold the history of America’s first Secretary of the Treasury via old-school braggart hip-hop (“My Shot”) and powerhouse R&B (“Satisfied”) with the flair of a well-studied musical-theatre nerd. Born in 1980 in New York City to Puerto Rican parents, Miranda creates cross-cultural work inspired by the communities he was surrounded in. His first Broadway musical, In the Heights, was based on the Washington Heights neighbourhood he spent time in and reflected a desire to bring Latino characters and Latin music front and centre, such as in the salsa-driven “The Club” and the heart-wrenching immigrant ballad “Paciencia Y Fe”. Miranda brings his talents beyond the theatre as well, having written soaring music for heroines (“How Far I’ll Go”), and ear-wormy Colombian pop (“We Don’t Talk About Bruno”) for the Disney hits Moana and Encanto.