Daveed Diggs on His Hebrew School Roots, Meeting Crazy Celebrities & Getting His Shot on Broadway in Hamilton

Age: 33

Hometown: Oakland, CA

Current Roles: A dynamic Broadway debut as French general Lafayette, “the Lancelot of the Revolutionary set,” and future U.S. president Thomas (“What’d I miss?”) Jefferson in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s epic musical Hamilton.

Stage Cred: After earning a theater degree from Brown University, Diggs acted in plays on the West Coast and began writing and performing with the hip-hop group Clipping. He joined Miranda’s sketch troupe Freestyle Love Supreme before being tapped for Hamilton.

“As a kid, I was very shy. I liked being on stage because it gave me a reason to be around people. The other great thing about acting is it allows you to imagine circumstances different from your own. I was a poor Bay Area kid getting to pretend to be a Russian aristocrat.”

“I went to Hebrew school, but opted out of a bar mitzvah. My mom is a white Jewish lady and my dad is black. The cultures never seemed separate—I had a lot of mixed friends. When I was young, I identified with being Jewish, but I embraced my dad’s side too.”

“Everybody without money should apply to the Ivy League. The secret they don’t tell poor kids is ‘need-blind admissions.’ Brown recruited me for track, and it ended up being thousands of dollars cheaper than a state school.”

“Hamilton is authentic. If another writer tried to put rapping into characters for whom rap music didn’t exist, it would feel forced, but that’s how Lin speaks. He quotes rap, R&B and Broadway musicals in conversation! It feels natural to perform because it’s real.”

“Our first preview was surprisingly emotional. I had decided early on that Broadway would not have a space for me, so I was taken aback by how intense it felt. I’ve toured the world and played big houses, but never one with so much history.”

“The past six months have been a whirlwind. I just moved to Washington Heights with my girlfriend, and some crazy celebrity comes [to the show] every week. I keep expecting to reach a point of normalcy, but it hasn’t happened yet!”