On yesterday’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Lin-Manuel Miranda guest starred as Amy Santiago’s brother. If you recall, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was cancelled this summer and then saved in 31 hours, partly thanks to the swell of support from celebrities including LMM. I guess his guest appearance is a way of saying thanks, after he posted this Tweet in support of the show:

Does this mean that we can also expect cameos from Sean Astin and Mark Hamil? I’m gonna freak if Samwise Gamgee and Luke Skywalker walk into the 99th precinct.

LMM is a super-fan of the show, so even the promos for the episode were just filled with LMM gushing about being on the show and, again, stanning the show hard. Even the show’s creator, Dan Goor, gave LMM a shout-out, while his on screen sister, Melissa Fumero, basically said the doors were open for another cameo.

 

 

In yesterday’s episode, LMM plays David Santiago, one of Amy’s seven brothers who is the prodigal child of the house. He occupies the coveted “mantel space” in their parents’ house because he is gifted, talented, and perfect in every way which drives Amy up the wall for most of the episode. David Santiago is the perfect character choice, because LMM is David. 

LMM is just coming off awards season, fresh from campaigning for and promoting Mary Poppins, where he played Jack opposite Emily Blunt. He also briefly took a break from that in January to play Alexander Hamilton for 3 weeks in Puerto Rico to raise money after hurricane Maria. I’m exhausted just following awards season, so imagine actually being a part of it. But LMM has like a trillion other projects going on as well. He just finished stage performances for Camelot and Freestyle Love Supreme in NYC. This year, he produced the upcoming Fosse/Verdon limited series starring Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell, he’s also producing and composing for The KingKiller Chronicle, a TV series based on the popular fantasy novel airing on Showtime, AND acting in His Dark Materials, BBC One’s adaptation of the classic trilogy by Philip Pullman (and one of my favourite book series). That’s just this year! LMM’s also working on composing for the live action remake of The Little Mermaid (yes, another Disney live action that no one is asking for), Sony Pictures’ upcoming animated film Vivo, and the film adaptation of his Tony award winning musical In The Heights. LMM is also taking the hefty role of director and producer on Tick Tick…BOOM!, the film adaptation of the autobiographical musical written by Jonathan Larson, creator of Rent. 

Somehow, between all of this, LMM also finds time to guest star on B99, and even try and save a drama book shop in Brooklyn! I want to find out who his assistant is and ask them how they schedule his entire life. The only way I can explain it is if LMM has a time turner from the Harry Potter books and is just in two, even three, places at once. 

I usually hate perfect people like LMM. For example, I met a gorgeous gay couple once, who both had high profile corporate jobs, British/Australian accents, and a great sense of humour. You can’t be smart, successful, rich, charming, and beautiful! It’s not fair! But people don’t hate LMM. Neither do I. In fact, his cameo was so popular, it got its own hashtag #BrookLIN99, which was trending last night. So why don’t we hate LMM even though he puts the rest of us to shame and reminds us how much more we could be doing with our lives? It’s probably because he’s so f-cking earnest and charming. LMM is probably one of the greatest creative minds of our time, but he never advertises that or shoves it down anyone’s throats. Right now, the most sought after commodity in the celebrity world is authenticity, and LMM has it in spades.