Who is the man behind the hit musical Hamilton?

If you don’t know who Lin-Manuel Miranda is you’re not paying enough attention - but fear not, we are here to help fill in some gaps.

Lin-Manuel Miranda in charachter as Alexander Hamilton.

If you don’t know who Lin-Manuel Miranda is you may not have been paying attention.

But not to worry, by the end of the weekend he will seem familiar as we are about to enter what is turning out to be the festival of Lin-Manuel Miranda.

He is of course thecreator of the hit musical Hamilton and is now a global celebrity thanks to that.

And he’s here this weekend to finally see the Australian production of his show in, yes, Brisbane!

You have to love a guy who blew off Sydney and Melbourne in favour of us.

OK Covid may have had something to do with that but never mind, he’s here and we love that.

Lin-Manuel Miranda starred as Alexander Hamilton on Broadway

He’ll be attending his show in the Lyric theatre at QPAC this weekend and will be fronting the media during a visit that is turning out to be positively presidential. Frankly everyone would be much more interested in Miranda than Joe Biden. Just saying.

Miranda, 43, is to be thanked for saving us all the trouble of reading Ron Chernow’s 800 page biography of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the US.

Miranda, who had a previous hit with the musical In The Heights, audaciously decided to turn Chernow’s book into a hip-hop musical, no mean feat.

He tried it out at the White House during the Obama era and it seemed to be well received so he went on with what turned out to be the musical that everyone everywhere is talking about.

If you see this guy wearing sunglasses in Brisbane you’ll know it is Lin-Manuel Miranda. / AFP PHOTO / VALERIE MACON

Miranda is a Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Olivier Award-winning songwriter, actor and director who grew up in New York.

He’s of Puerto Rican, Mexican and African descent which may go some way to explain why his show accentuates diversity in whatever country it’s playing.

The diverse cast reflects society today and in America Miranda said he wanted to create a show about America then (at the time of its founding) featuring a cast that reflected America now. And Australia too for that matter.

The diverse Australian cast of Hamilton the musical

Miranda is a bloke with a very good sense of humour. Just watch him on any of his interviews online or better still catch him in the two episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm that he did starring alongside Larry David and, well, upstaging him.

There’s a wrestling match on the office carpet between him and Larry David in one scene which shows what a sport he is.

Some might know him as the voice of Major Tom the horse in series three of Bluey.

Miranda is an avowed fan of the animated Australian series that comes out of Brisbane and since Bluey lives in Brisbane you have to wonder whether that influenced his decision to come here rather than Sydney or Melbourne.

Lin-Manuel Miranda voices a horse named Major Tom in Bluey

His resume is a long one an includes making his film debut with Tick, Tick…Boom! (2021), an adaptation of Jonathan Larson‘s semi-autobiographical musical Tick, Tick... Boom!

Miranda produced the film alongside Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and it was released on Netflix in 2021.

He cites Larson’s show Rent as the musical that set him on his career path.

He married Vanessa Nadal, a high school friend, in 2010 and the couple have two boys.

He seems to be a hell of a nice guy and I guess we will find that out on the weekend. We hope he gets to chat to some fans and he has filled the Lyric Theatre at QPAC for a Q and A session with Leigh Sales of the ABC Sunday.

So that’s your Lin-Manuel Miranda. Now you know ... in case you didn’t. Hell, if you see him, say hi.