Daveed Diggs

Tony, Grammy, and Lucille Lortel Award winning actor, writer, producer, and musician, Daveed Diggs, is widely known for originating the dual roles of “Thomas Jefferson” and “Marquis de Lafayette” in the Broadway sensation, Hamilton, for which he won a Tony Award. The Hamilton movie, which was filmed onstage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre and features Diggs and his castmates, is streaming on Disney+. Diggs’ performance in the film earned him an Emmy Nomination for “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie” and a SAG Award Nomination for “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.” Diggs co-wrote, produced, and starred in the critically acclaimed Lionsgate feature, Blindspotting, which Peter DeBruge at Variety called, “the most exciting cinematic take on contemporary race relations since Do The Right Thing nearly 30 years ago.” In addition to receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance, Eric Kohn of IndieWire deemed Diggs as “an instant movie star.” Obama also included the film in an edition of his favorite movies of the year. Following the film’s success, Diggs co-wrote and executive produced the critically acclaimed television spinoff starring Jasmine Cephas Jones, for Starz. The series received a Gotham Award Nomination and an Indie Spirit Award Nomination for “Breakthrough Series - Short Format.” Digg’s appeared and consulted on Pixar’s Oscar winning feature, Soul and stars as Disney fan-favorite “Sebastian” in Rob Marshall’s live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid opposite Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, Javier Bardem, and Awkwafina. Diggs previously starred in Lionsgate’s Wonder opposite Julia Roberts, in the Netflix thriller Velvet Buzzsaw opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, and in Netflix’s The Starling opposite Melissa McCarthy. On television, Diggs recently starred in TNT’s series Snowpiercer opposite Jennifer Connelly. He was nominated for a Critics Choice Award for his performance in Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird opposite Ethan Hawke. He stars in Apple’s star-studded anthology series Extrapolations, from writer/director Scott Z. Burns and has also lent his voice to Apple’s Central Park, Netflix’s Green Eggs and Ham, Amazon’s Undone, Fox’s Bob’s Burgers, Netflix’s Bojack Horseman, Disney XD’s Star Wars, and Paramount+’s Star Trek: Prodigy. Other television credits include ABC’s Emmy-nominated series Blackish, Netflix’s hit comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, HBO’s Tour De Pharmacy, and Netflix’s The Get Down, created by visionary director Baz Luhrmann. Diggs also executive produced ABC’s The Mayor and a variety of digital shorts for ESPN. Diggs recently returned to the stage in The Public Theater’s production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Outer Critics Circle Award-winning play White Noise, directed by Oskar Eustis. Ben Brantley of the New York Times hailed his return to the stage as his “breakout performance as a dramatic star.” Diggs is a member of the West Coast-based experimental hip-hop trio, “clipping.” He has toured nationally and internationally, both as a solo artist and with “clipping,” playing venues such as the Sonar Festival in Barcelona; Off Festival in Krakow; ATP Iceland in Keflavic; and Brooklyn's AfroPunk Fest. Special engagement bookings include the Red Bull Music Academy and Moog Electronics. The group was also nominated for a Hugo Award for their sophomore album, Splendor & Misery, and Simon and Schuster released a novel based on their acclaimed single “The Deep.” The group also collaborated with Disney to write/produce the viral holiday hit “Puppy for Hanukkah.” Diggs was raised and went to school in his early years in Oakland, CA, the son of a social worker and bus driver. After graduating, he worked as a substitute teacher in Oakland before he won the role in Hamilton. During his time as a substitute teacher, he developed a spoken word curriculum to help students express themselves in creative ways.