Daveed Diggs

Early life and education

Diggs was born in Oakland, California. He has described his mother as Jewish and his father as African-American. His parents named him "Daveed," the Hebrew pronunciation of David. Diggs has said, "‘David’ means beloved in Hebrew... They spelled it with two E’s because my dad liked the look of it.” His parents' ethnic/racial identities have contributed to his own self-identification: "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.”

Diggs is an alumnus of Berkeley High School and Brown University, where he graduated in 2004, with a bachelor's degree in theatre arts. An elite athlete, he was originally recruited for his track skills, and excelled in the sport at Brown, while earning a degree in theatre. Diggs broke the Brown Bears' school record in the 110 meter hurdles as a sophomore, when he finished with a time of 14.21 seconds.

Theatre

Diggs performed in a lot of experimental theatre early on, most notably when he was on the national tour for Marc Bamuthi Joseph's choreopoem, Word Becomes Flesh, about a nine-month pregnancy, through the eyes of a young, single father. Aside from his experimental work, he frequently performed in regional Shakespeare productions.

Lin-Manuel Miranda later invited Diggs to read and hear early versions of Hamilton. Diggs was impressed by Miranda's demos and obvious passion for the project, and saw that the concept was a perceptive use of the rap-musical medium. He became part of the musical and played the roles of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette off-Broadway in 2015, continuing with the roles when the show was moved to Broadway later in the year. For his performance, Diggs won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, as well as a 2016 Grammy Award for the cast album.

Diggs played his final performance in the show on July 15, 2016.

Music

Diggs is the vocalist of and writer for the experimental hip-hop and rap group clipping. The group was founded by William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes in 2009, with Diggs joining in 2010. The trio ultimately self-released their first mixtape album midcity in 2013 to fairly positive reviews, leading them to be signed to Sub Pop. They released their album CLPPNG in 2014, which was promoted with their CLPPNG Tour. In 2016, they released an EP titled Wriggle, followed by the album Splendor & Misery.

He is also a member of True Neutral Crew, alongside Brian Kinsman, Margot Padilla and Signor Benedick the Moor. The group have released two EPs, #MONSANTO (2013) and 2014's #POPPUNK, as well as Live, a 20-minute short film of a live performance. They released their debut album soft rules in 2016.

In 2010 he made a duo album with Rafael Casal titled The BAY BOY Mixtape. Two years later, in 2012, he released his first solo rap album, Small Things to a Giant, composed of entirely original music he had written. As of 2016, Diggs has been working on a new solo rap release, set for release toward the end of 2016 or early in 2017.

He is also a member of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail's freestyle rap group Freestyle Love Supreme, or FLS, which performs across the country.

His rapping has also been featured on tracks by Busdriver, George Watsky, Rafael Casal, and Leslie Odom, Jr., and he wrote and performed a rap number for the 2016 animated film Zootopia.

Discography

With clipping.

With True Neutral Crew

Featured artist

Concerts

Honors

On May 28, 2017, an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree was conferred upon Diggs, during the 249th commencement ceremony at Brown University, his alma mater.