Daveed Diggs first came to the attention of many when he played Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, but the actor has been busy since leaving the stage. Diggs, who won a Grammy and Tony Award for his performances, played the dual roles in 2015 and 2016 before moving on to other opportunities. Since a 2016 production of Hamilton was made available on Disney+, the musical has been met with a resurgence of popularity - and so has Diggs.
Before joining Lin-Manual Miranda's musical, the Oakland native attended Brown University where he attained a bachelor's degree in theatre. Diggs worked as a substitute teacher for a brief time until he focused his time on stage work. He starred in a dozen plays prior to his time on Hamilton, while also becoming a member of the hip-hop and rap group Clipping. Diggs also appeared in two short films as well as the web series Hobbes and Me and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
When his stint on Hamilton came to an end, Diggs had plenty of work to keep him occupied. On the film side in 2016, he wrote and performed "Parlez-Vous Rap" for Zootopia and served as the narrator for the documentary titled Growing Up Wild. That same year, Diggs played the adult version of Ezekiel Figuero in The Get Down and began his recurring role on Black-ish. The following year, Diggs continued splitting his time between TV and film. Aside from working on Sesame Street, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and The Mayor, Diggs also starred in the film Wonder and voiced a role in Ferdinand.
More recently, Diggs wrote and produced Blindspotting, a movie that also featured him in the lead role. After beginning his stint on Bob's Burgers in 2018, Diggs followed it up with voice roles in Undone, Green Eggs and Ham, and Star Wars Resistance. The actor starred in the 2019 satirical horror film Velvet Buzzsaw and also appeared in two stage productions, White Noise and Freestyle Love Supreme. 2020 is emerging as a major year for Diggs; not only did he star as the lead in the TV adaptation of Snowpiercer, he also gained a series regular voice role on Apple TV+'s Central Park.
Next up, the Hamilton alum will be heard voicing Paul in Pixar's upcoming film titled Soul. Paul is described as the neighborhood nemesis of central character Joe Gardner, played by Jamie Foxx. Later this year, Diggs will be seen in the Showtime miniseries The Good Lord Bird in which he will play the role of Frederick Douglas. Other than those projects, Diggs is currently working on The Starling, an upcoming comedy-drama film that also stars Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Kevin Kline, Timothy Olyphant, and Skyler Gisondo. Diggs has also been tapped to portray Sebastian in the future live-action Disney adaptation of The Little Mermaid.