lin manuel miranda started writing in the heights in 1999.
lin manuel miranda started writing in the heights in 1999.
when did lin manuel miranda start writing in the heights?
1999
thomas kail









































thomas kail (born january 20, 1977) is an american film and theatre director, known for directing the off-broadway and broadway productions of lin-manuel miranda's musicals "in the heights" and "hamilton", for which he received the 2016 tony award for best direction of a musical. kail was awarded the kennedy center honor in 2018.









































section::::personal life.









































kail grew up in alexandria, virginia and graduated from sidwell friends school in 1995 and subsequently from wesleyan university in 1999. he remains good friends with lin-manuel miranda, with whom he met and co-created the freestyle hip-hop group "freestyle love supreme".









































section::::career.
thomas kail
miranda was born in new york city and raised in the neighborhood of inwood, the son of dr. luz towns-miranda, a clinical psychologist, and luis a. miranda, jr., a democratic party consultant who advised new york city mayor ed koch. miranda has one older sister, luz, who is the chief financial officer of the mirram group. during childhood and his teens, he spent at least one month each year with his grandparents in vega alta, puerto rico. he is of mostly puerto rican descent. his mother's ancestors include an interracial couple, sophie, who was black, and david towns, who was white; from the early 1800s, this couple spent their married life trying to outrun slavery as laws and governments changed around them. ensuing branches of the towns family primarily married mexican spouses in texas and mexico, and miranda, for his part, has described his ancestry as a quarter mexican. the name "lin-manuel" was inspired by a poem about the vietnam war, "nana roja para mi hijo lin manuel", by the puerto rican writer josé manuel torres santiago.
lin-manuel miranda