HAMILTON's Leslie Odom Jr. Wins 2016 Tony Award for Best Lead Actor - Musical

Leslie Odom, Jr. has won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his role as Aaron Burr in Hamilton.

Select theatre credits include Hamilton (Public Theater); tick, tick...BOOM! (City Center Encores!), Leap of Faith (Broadway), Rent (Broadway). Select TV/film: "Law & Order: SVU," "Gotham," "Person of Interest," "Supernatural," Red Tails, and "House of Lies."

Odom, Jr. graduated with honors from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. He's been nominated for the Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel Awards. He's won the Princess Grace Award and an Astaire Award.

HAMILTON opened on August 6, 2016 at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre. The cast of Hamilton is comprised of Lin-Manuel Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), Daveed Diggs(Marquis De Lafayette,Thomas Jefferson), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler),Christopher Jackson (George Washington), Rory O'Malley (King George), Jasmine Cephas Jones (Peggy Schuyler, Maria Reynolds), Javier Muñoz (Hamilton alternate), Okieriete Onaodowan(Hercules Mulligan, James Madison), Leslie Odom, Jr. (Aaron Burr),Anthony Ramos(John Laurens, PhilipHamilton) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).

With book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, direction by Thomas Kail, choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and musical direction and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire, Hamilton is based on Ron Chernow's biography of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.

HAMILTON is the story of America's Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington's right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and was the new nation's first Treasury Secretary. Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B, and Broadway,HAMILTON is the story of America then, as told by America now.

Photo credit: Joan Marcus