12 Lin-Manuel Accomplishments That Helped Put Latinos on the Map

Happy Birthday, Lin-Manuel Miranda! Today is the composer, lyricist and actor’s 38th birthday. The Hamilton creator has had quite an eventful past year, including being nominated for an Oscar for his work on Disney’s Moana, doing a ton to help Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria struck the island in September 2017 and even announcing that him and scientist wife Vanessa Nadal are expecting baby number two.

But the Puerto Rican star has so much more that he has accomplished in the past 38 years and so much more we know we’ll see from him. Not only does he currently have a Pulitzer Prize, two Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, a MacArthur Fellowship and three Tony Awards, but we are going to continue to see his name in lights (such as in the upcoming Mary Poppins Returns). In honor of his birthday today, we’re celebrating by naming 12 of his accomplishments that have helped to raise the profile of Latinos everywhere.

He wrote In the Heights and highlighted the lives of Latinos living in Washington Heights.

Lin-Manuel’s first musical, In The Heights, received plenty of accolades for the realistic portrayal of Latinos living in NYC’s neighborhood Washington Heights. It also received four 2008 Tony Awards, a Grammy Award and many other awards for its off-Broadway production.

He previewed Hamilton in front of President Barack Obama at the White House. 

Back when Lin-Manuel was still just writing Hamilton, he got to preview material from the show (basically the beginning song) at the White House during its first-ever Evening of Poetry & Spoken Word in 2009. Seeing the former President and First Lady’s smiling faces is pure joy.

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He wrote Hamilton, and won numerous awards for the groundbreaking hip-hop musical about the life of founding father Alexander Hamilton.

You probably don’t need us to list all of the wonderful things about Hamilton, but you should probably know (if you don’t already) that Lin-Manuel’s epic Broadway music won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton won the 2016 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.

wp_*postsHe became a MacArthur Foundation Award recipient in 2015, a.k.a. the “genius” grant.

It’s a HUGE honor to win the MacArthur Foundation Award, also known as the “genius” grant, and Lin-Manuel had that honor in 2015 for “expanding the conventions of musical theater with a popular culture sensibility and musical styles and voices that reflect the diverse cultural panorama of the American urban experience.”

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He received an Emmy Award with Tom Kitt for their song, “Bigger” from the 67th Annual Tony Awards. 

In 2014, Lin-Manuel got closer to being an EGOT recipient when he earned an Emmy for writing for the Tony Awards. That’s someone who has an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award—an honor currently bestowed upon only 12 people.

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He released the concept album The Hamilton Mixtape, filled with the works of many other artists.

Don’t ever let it be said that Lin-Manuel doesn’t love to feature the works of other collaborators, such as he did in The Hamilton Mixtape, which was a reimagining of many Hamilton songs but featuring other artists. He received a 2017 MTV VMA Award for the video of “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)”.

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He wrote several songs for Disney’s feature film Moana and earned Oscar nominations in 2017.

In a move that could have earned him an EGOT at 37 years of age, Lin-Manuel contributed music, lyrics and vocals to Disney’s Moana and earned an Oscar nomination in 2017 for the original song “How Far I’ll Go.” Although the song ultimately didn’t win, we’re sure that he will be up for another Oscar soon.

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He was appointed a Council Member of The Dramatists Guild by New York City Mayor.

In 2015, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Lin-Manuel Miranda to NYC’s Theater Subdistrict and Miranda also began to serve as a Council Member of The Dramatists Guild. He also is a recent recipient of the National Arts Club Medal of Honor and the ASCAP Foundation’s Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award.

wp_*postsHe wrote and released two charity songs, “Love Make The World Go Round” in 2016 and “Almost Like Praying” in 2017.

In July 2016, Lin-Manuel released a charity song with Jennifer Lopez titled “Love Make The World Go Round, which was a tribute to the victims of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. Last year, he wrote and released “Almost Like Praying” in October to benefit Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief after Hurricane Maria struck the island in September 2017.

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He will star in the 2018 Disney film Mary Poppins Returns alongside Emily Blunt.

The musical sequel to 1964’s Mary Poppins, which starred Julie Andrews in the iconic role, will return on December 25, 2018, with Lin-Manuel as Jack and Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins. Honestly, after seeing all those adorable photos from the set, we can’t WAIT!

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He conquered the world of music with the Hamilton cast recording and The Hamilton Mixtape.

Thanks to the Hamilton cast recording and The Hamilton Mixtape, both albums were on the Billboard charts—with the cast recording spending 10 weeks on on the Billboard Top Rap Albums chart in 2015 and the album of covers reaching number one on the Billboard 200 when it was released in December 2016.

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He hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time in 2016 and continues to expand his reach in entertainment.

In 2016, he hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time and earned this first Emmy Award nomination for acting. Other than his role in the aforementioned Mary Poppins Returns, he continues to make headways in entertainment and even contributed music and vocals for a scene in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.