Leslie Odom, Jr.

Leslie Odom, Jr. (born August 6, 1981, Queens, New York, U.S.) is a multifaceted actor and singer best known for his breakout role as statesman Aaron Burr in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster Broadway musical Hamilton (2015–16). Starring opposite Miranda, who played the title role of Alexander Hamilton, Odom brought Hamilton’s rival and eventual murderer to life with his layered and thoughtful performance as Burr. Odom earned a Tony Award for best actor in a musical and a Grammy Award for best musical theater album for performing as a principal soloist on Hamilton’s original cast recording.

Early life and career

Odom was raised in Philadelphia, where his mother was a nursing home recreation director and his father was a salesman. He developed a love of singing as a child, performing at the Canaan Baptist Church his family attended. When he was 13 years old, he won an oratory competition on African American history and received a scholarship to Philadelphia’s nonprofit Freedom Theatre, Pennsylvania’s oldest African American theater. In his first role at Freedom Theatre he portrayed an enslaved person in playwright William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker. When he was 16 years old, Odom auditioned for the Broadway musical Rent, and he joined the cast at age 17, while he was still in high school, as a replacement member of the ensemble. He credits his time as a Rent cast member with fostering his appreciation for musical theater. In a 2023 interview with Broadway Direct, he recalled: “That show brought me and a generation of artists to the theater. It told us that a piece of work on Broadway could be artistically fulfilling, culturally relevant, and commercially successful.”

Although he had an offer to continue on Broadway in another production, Odom left New York City to attend Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, graduating with honors in 2003 from the School of Drama. The summer after finishing college, Odom relocated to Los Angeles, where he pursued singing gigs and landed roles in television series, including the police drama CSI: Miami (2003–06), the serial drama Vanished (2006), and the sitcom Big Day (2006–07). He returned to New York City to work on the musical drama TV series Smash (2012–13). Odom also appeared in supporting roles in the science-fiction drama series Person of Interest (2013–14) and the crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2013–15).

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Stardom and personal life

In 2013 Odom attended a rehearsal of the musical that would eventually become Hamilton that was organized by Miranda, and he was interested in being part of the show from the beginning, when Miranda was still working through the concept. As the production took shape, Odom was invited to read for the part of Aaron Burr. He actively pursued the role, despite being already booked to perform in the espionage thriller TV series State of Affairs (2014–15). Hamilton opened Off-Broadway in January 2015 and shortly thereafter moved to Broadway, where it won 11 Tony Awards. Odom garnered critical acclaim for his powerful portrayal of Burr. His final appearance as Burr came in July 2016, when the show’s original Broadway run ended, and both he and Miranda, as well as costar Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton), left the cast. In a 2016 interview with The New York Times, Odom reflected that he had developed sympathy for Burr after portraying him on Broadway: “None of us wants to be judged by our worst act on our worst day, and we consistently judge Burr for that. He was not a perfect man, but he’s not a villain.”

Odom joined 21 other Hamilton original cast members in insisting upon a profit-sharing plan when the show became a financial success. The cast members refused the lump-sum payments that are common in the industry and instead demanded future royalties from the show they had helped to create, an act that could potentially change the way actors on Broadway are financially compensated in the future.

In addition to his theater work, Odom has also recorded several albums. His eponymous debut, released in 2014, was partially funded via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to the tune of more than $40,000. The 2016 rerelease of the album reached number one on the Billboard jazz chart. He followed his debut album with Simply Christmas (original release 2016, rerelease 2017) and Mr (2019), an album of original music that features the standout tracks “Remember Black” and “Cold.” Later in 2020 he released The Christmas Album, and in 2023 he offered up When a Crooner Dies, another album of original songs, which featured deeply personal tracks, such as the single “Show Me.”

Odom also returned to the stage in 2023, joining the cast of Ossie Davis’s Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch, a satire set in the 1950s. He played the title role of Purlie Victorious, a preacher trying to create a desegregated congregation in the Jim Crow South. On television, Odom voiced the role of Owen Tillerman in the animated musical comedy series Central Park (2020– ), for which he received an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding character voice-over performance. On the silver screen, he starred as abolitionist William Still in the Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet (2019), and he played legendary soul music singer Sam Cooke in the drama One Night in Miami… (2020). For his role as Cooke, whom Odom credits as a major inspiration, he received an Academy Award nomination, a BAFTA Award nomination, and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, among others. He also garnered an Academy Award nomination for the song “Speak Now,” which he cowrote and performed for the film’s soundtrack. Odom starred with Miranda and Soo in the live stage recording for the 2020 film version of Hamilton. In 2022 he played scientist Lionel Toussaint in the murder mystery Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

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His autobiography, Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher and Never Stop Learning, which is written in the style of a graduation commencement speech, was released in 2018. He married fellow actress Nicolette Robinson in 2012, and they have two children.