There’s no denying that Hamilton made quite the splash when it opened on Broadway August 6, 2015. In addition to becoming the hottest ticket in town and winning the 2016 Tony Award for Best Musical, the impact of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical rippled beyond New York City’s Theatre District, becoming a pop culture powerhouse.
Along with the musical itself, the original cast gained prominence and an abundance of fans. While many of the cast members had gotten their starts before Hamilton, they have seen their careers soar to new heights in the nine years since it opened. Here are the highlights of what they’ve been up to since their final bows at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
The world certainly knows his name after creating and starring in the smash hit. After departing Hamilton, Miranda had a string of Disney projects released, writing and contributing music to films such as Encanto, Moana, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the live-action The Little Mermaid, and Mary Poppins Returns, which he also starred in alongside Emily Blunt. He made his film directorial debut with the Netflix adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Tick, Tick…BOOM!. His own musical In the Heights received a film adaptation in 2021, starring fellow Hamilton alum Anthony Ramos. In 2019, audiences saw Miranda in the television adaptation of His Dark Materials. On August 1, Miranda announced that he and Eisa Davis will release their concept album adaptation of The Warriors on October 18.
Leslie Odom Jr.
Aaron Burr (sir) was the role that landed Odom a 2016 Tony Award for best lead actor in a musical and a 2021 Emmy Award nomination for the 2020 filmed version of the musical on Disney+. He also earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the Apple TV+ series Central Park. Diving deep into film work, audiences saw him in Hollywood hits like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Harriet, and Murder on the Orient Express. He also starred as Sam Cooke in and wrote “Speak Now” for One Night in Miami, earning him two Oscar nominations—one for best supporting actor and one for Original Song. He also released four albums as a recording artist: The Christmas Album, Mr. Simply Christmas, and When a Crooner Dies. He returned to Broadway in 2023 as a producer and star in the titular role of Purlie Victorious, earning him Tony nominations for best lead actor in a play and Best Revival of a Play.
Renée Elise Goldsberry
Goldsberry’s performance as Angelica Schuyler left audiences “Satisfied,” winning her the 2016 Tony Award for featured actress in a musical, and earning an Emmy Award nomination for her performance in the 2020 Disney+ filmed version. Since then, she has been all over the silver screen, acting in television shows such as Altered Carbon, Documentary Now!, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. She also starred in the titular role of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and is currently starring as Wickie Roy in Girls5eva. In 2023 she returned to the stage as Prospero in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of The Tempest.
Phillipa Soo
Following Soo’s 2016 Tony Award nomination for her performance as “the best of wives, best of women,” Eliza Schuyler, the actress returned to Broadway for two consecutive seasons. First, during the 2016–2017 season, she starred in the titular role of Amélie, and during the 2017–2018 season, she starred alongside Uma Thurman in The Parisian Woman. Television audiences saw her star in The Bite, Dopesick, and Shining Girls before she returned to the Broadway stage as Cinderella in Into the Woods and Guinevere in Camelot. This fall, Soo will star alongside Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson in Ryan Murphy’s new drama series, Doctor Odyssey, on ABC.
Jasmine Cephas Jones
Jones impressed Broadway audiences with her vocal prowess in the dual roles of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds before wowing them with her screen work. She played Ashley in the film Blindspotting — written and produced by and also starring fellow Hamilton alum Daveed Diggs. The film was so successful, it received a spinoff series with Jones as the lead and as a producer. She also made history as the first Black woman to win an Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series Emmy, for her performance in #freeRayShawn. It was the same night her father, the late Ron Cephas Jones, won his second Emmy Award, making them the first daughter-father duo to win Emmy Awards in the same ceremony. On the recording front, she released an EP titled Blue Bird in 2020 and an album called Phoenix in 2024.
Anthony Ramos
Ramos wasn’t finished with Miranda musicals once he completed his run playing dual roles of John Laurens and Phillip Schuyler in Hamilton. In 2018, he starred as Usnavi (the role Miranda originated in 2008) in the Kennedy Center production of In the Heights before reprising the role for the 2021 film adaptation. Audiences also saw him on the big screen in A Star Is Born, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and this summer in the blockbuster Twisters. As a recording artist, he released The Freedom EP, The Good & the Bad, and Love and Lies.
Daveed Diggs
Diggs’s dual-role performance as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson earned him a 2016 Tony Award, and a 2021 Emmy Award nomination for his performance in the musical’s filmed version on Disney+. He then went on to work both in front of and behind the camera, as he wrote, produced, and starred in the 2018 film Blindspotting, which also featured fellow Hamilton alum Jasmine Cephas Jones. He created, wrote, executive produced, and acted in the television spinoff of the same name. He starred in Snowpiercer, Wonder, Zootopia, and the live-action remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. And he was most recently seen onstage in Suzan Lori Parks’s White Noise at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater in 2019.
Okieriete Onaodowan
After playing the dual roles of Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, Onaodowan returned to Broadway the following year to play Pierre in Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. His most recent Broadway outing was in 2023, starring as Nills Krogstead in A Doll’s House. Beyond the stage, he was seen in television shows such as The Get Down, Jack Ryan, and She’s Gotta Have It. His guest character Dean Miller in Grey’s Anatomy became a main character in its spinoff series Station 19. He was also seen in films such as A Quiet Place Part II and American Fiction.
Christopher Jackson
Tony-nominated for his performance as the nation’s first president, Jackson took his bow as George Washington “one last time” in November 2016. He then provided his talents to film and television, playing Chester “Chunk” Palmer in Bull and as Herbert Wexley in the Sex in the City reboot, And Just Like That. Audiences heard his singing voice as Chief Tui in the Disney animated film Moana, and in the Disney series The Lion Guard and Apple TV+’s Central Park. He showed some love for his musical-theater roots as he made cameos during Freestyle Love Supreme’s Broadway run as well as the In the Heights film adaptation.
Jonathan Groff
Once Groff hung up his King George III crown in Hamilton, he starred in the first musical podcast, 36 Questions, and in the Netflix series Mindhunter. He also reprised his role as Kristoff in the Disney animated sequel Frozen II. He brought his talents back to the stage as Seymour in the 2019 Off-Broadway hit revival of Little Shop of Horrors. In 2022, he was back Off-Broadway starring as Franklin Sheppard in Merrily We Roll Along at New York Theatre Workshop, transferring with the production to Broadway. Though the Stephen Sondheim musical was perceived as a commercial failure when it first opened in 1981, the Tony-winning revival was a smash hit, and Groff received the 2024 Tony Award for best lead actor in a musical.
The Company
The principal cast members weren’t the only actors to find success after Hamilton. Ariana DeBose (The Bullet) won an Oscar for her performance as Anita in the 2021 remake of West Side Story, and has thrice hosted the Tony Awards; Ephraim Sykes (George Eaker) earned a 2019 Tony nomination for his portrayal of David Ruffin in Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, and will soon be seen back on Broadway in Our Town; Emmy Raver-Lampman (Ensemble) played Angelica in the first national tour of Hamilton before joining Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy as Allison Hargreeves, Javier Muñoz (original Alexander Hamilton alternate and first replacement) was seen in several television shows as well as in the Chicago premiere of the The Devil Wears Prada musical as Nigel; and Sydney James Harcourt (Ensemble) is currently starring as Rum Tum Tugger in the Off-Broadway production of CATS: The Jellicle Ball. Thayne Jasperson (Samuel Seabury) is the only original cast member who continues to perform in the musical nearly a decade after the show’s Broadway premiere.