Lin Manuel Miranda was born on January 26 1980 in New York City Since he was born in New York he had an exposure to the arts at a very young age He grew up in a home with parents from Puerto Rico His Puerto Rican roots were very important to him and his family He would go to Puerto Rico every summer Music and the arts helped him become who he is at a young age he started to learn how to play piano When he saw his first musical on broadway he was hooked The musical he saw was Les Miserables at age 7 he was so interested in being a part of something so life changing From that moment he stepped foot on broadway he was home Fast forward many years he became a high school english teacher But later on realized it was not his passion so he put all of his energy into theatre He was in West Side Story In the heights Bring it on and of course Hamilton He was also involved in the Disney movie Moana soundtrack with the song Your welcome he composed the song that was in the movie Lin Manuel Miranda did translation work for the wonderful musical West Side Story He wanted to get involved with this musical because he thought it had such an amazing storyline He understood what it was about because he grew up in a Puerto Rican family just like in the show He translated the music for this show to be more modern and understandable In the heights was on broadway from March 9 2008 January 9 2011 Lin Manuel starred as the character Usnavi Lin also composed the musical and became extremely close with the director which helped him latter on
