AUDIO: HAMILTON's Lin-Manuel Miranda Writes Deathwatch Beetle Tune for RADIOLAB

Lin-Manuel Miranda is everywhere: performing, winning and rapping at the GRAMMYs, composing music for the new STAR WARS film, and now writing for WNYC Studios' RADIOLAB podcast.

The creator and star of Broadway's HAMILTON wrote and performed an original song for the show's latest episode, "Hard Knock Life." And it's about a beetle.

Specifically, Miranda wrote a tune about the Deathwatch beetle, "which spends most of its life boring into wood emitting a ticking sound, its mating call."

An ode to this, Miranda's performance (as the female beetle) begins at the 15:30 mark of the episode. Also featured is PITCH PERFECT's Utkarsh Ambudkar, who plays the part of the male beetle.

Check it out below! And for more on this episode, visit www.radiolab.org/story/hard-knock-life.

---

Actor, composer, writer, playwright, lyricist, and rapper Lin-Manuel Miranda is best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals IN THE HEIGHTS and HAMILTON.

Miranda wrote the music and lyrics for the musical IN THE HEIGHTS, which opened on Broadway at the Richard RodgersTheatre in March 2008. Miranda's written work for the show earned him numerous accolades, including the 2008 Tony Award for Best Original Score and the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Miranda's performance in the show's lead role of Usnavi earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Miranda is currently performing on Broadway in the lead role of Alexander Hamilton in HAMILTON, a new musical for which he wrote the book, music and lyrics. Just last night, he and the company won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Miranda is a 2015 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award.

Picture of Lin-Manuel Miranda by Walter McBride; photo of Deathwatch beetle from Getty Images.