HAMILTON LUNCH

Meet the Girl Be Heard Fairy Godfathers:

Girl Be Heard is delighted to have honored two NYC heroes, Luis A. Miranda, Jr. (father) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (son), as our very first Fairy Godfathers.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a Tony, Grammy, and Emmy award-winning composer, lyricist, and performer, as well as a 2015 MacArthur Foundation Award recipient. His current musical, Hamilton – with book, music, and lyrics by Mr. Miranda, in addition to him playing the title role – opened on Broadway in 2015 following a sold-out run at New York’s Public Theater. The Original Broadway Cast Recording of Hamilton won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Mr. Miranda’s first Broadway musical, In the Heights, received four 2008 Tony Awards (including Best Orchestrations, Best Choreography, and Best Musical), with Mr. Miranda receiving a Tony Award for Best Score, as well as a nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. In the Heights also took home a 2009 Grammy Award for its Original Broadway Cast Album, and was recognized as a Finalist for the 2009 and Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Other Broadway credits: Bring It On: The Musical (co-composer/co-lyricist, Tony nomination for Best Musical), West Side Story (2009 revival, Spanish translations). With Tom Kitt, Mr. Miranda received an Emmy Award for their song, Bigger from The 67th Annual Tony Awards. Mr. Miranda serves as a Council Member of The Dramatists Guild, board member of Young Playwrights Inc. and was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to New York City’s Theater Subdistrict Council in 2015. Mr. Miranda received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2002. He lives in New York City with his wife, son, and dog.

Luis A. Miranda, Jr. has almost four decades of experience as a leader in the public and private sectors. He has served in three New York City mayoral administrations and is the founder and former President of the Hispanic Federation, a service-oriented membership organization that works with 90 Latino health and human service agencies to promote social, political, and economic change. He is a Board Member of the John Jay College Foundation and The Public Theater, vice-chair of the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, and a member of the advisory boards to Nielsen Ratings, R.Evolucion Latina, and the Caribbean and Latin American Studies Department at the CUNY Graduate Center. He has served as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Audubon Partnership for Economic Development, West End Day School, and Amber Charter School. Mr. Miranda is currently the chairperson of The Broadway League’s Latino audience development program, Viva Broadway. Mr. Miranda is co-founder and Managing Partner of The MirRam Group, a government affairs, lobbying and political consulting firm in New York City. He earned his BA degree from the University of Puerto Rico and pursued graduate work in psychology at New York University. Luis and wife, Dr. Luz Towns-Miranda Ph.D., have been married for 38 years and reside in the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights/Inwood.