Photo: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock
Nadal is a professor, attorney, and chemical engineer.
By Olivia Jakiel — Written on Apr 08, 2021
You might know him from his world-famous play, "Hamilton," or from the Disney live-action film, "Marry Poppins Returns," as there are many people familiar with the works of Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Miranda is one of the most talented men in Hollywood and has worked as an actor, singer, songwriter, rapper, director, producer, and playwright. He also created and starred in the Broadway musical "In the Heights."
Miranda's 2007 musical "In The Heights" has a new movie adaptation set to release on June 17, 2021, which we're all excited about. But we're also curious about his wife, Vanessa Nadal.
Who is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s wife, Vanessa Nadal?
Vanessa Nadal was born on August 18, 1983, in New York City. In 1994, she attended Hunter College High School where she participated on the school's tennis and swim teams, was the president of the Hunter Latin Organization, and wrote for Hunter's school newspaper "What's What."
After graduating from high school, she went received her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2004. During college, she completed a 3-month internship as a lab researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where her interest in law was sparked. The next year, she went on to complete a 9-month research internship at MIT.
Nadal decided to stick with her interest in law and went to Fordham University School of Law, graduating in 2010 with a Juris Doctorate (JD), which is the highest law degree in the U.S.! During graduate school, she attended the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid, Spain to study European Union law, Spanish law, and international comparative law in the Spanish language.
She scored her first law internship with King Ramsey Perry & Howell, LLP in New York City, and afterwards she interned at the Supreme Court of NY Appellate Division. Her next job was a 4-month internship at Jones Day, where she became a law associate.
What does Vanessa Nadal do for a living?
Vanessa Nadal is a professor, attorney, and chemical engineer.
“I am an attorney, chemical engineer and serve as adjunct faculty at Fordham University School of Law. Outside of teaching, I am completing a chapter on cosmetics regulations for an upcoming nutshell on fashion law from Fordham Fashion Law Institute,” her LinkedIn bio reads.
At Fordham University School of Law, she serves as the “co-founder and professor of the first law school program on Cosmetics Regulation, covering the governmental, industrial, and societal regulation of cosmetics and other personal care products.”
Miranda and Nadal currently reside in New York City with their kids and their dog.
How did Lin-Manuel Miranda and Vanessa Nadal meet?
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Vanessa Nadal actually went to Hunter College High School together. She was a sophomore when he was a senior, and he said that he was basically too intimidated by her to strike up a conversation while they went to school together.
"She was gorgeous and I'm famously bad at talking to women I find attractive," Miranda said in 2010. "I have a total lack of game."
After catching up with Hunter graduates on Facebook in 2005, he came across Nadal's profile and invited her to one of his hip-hop comedy troupe’s shows. To his surprise, she actually showed up!
Nadal joined Miranda and some friends for drinks after the first show, although she admitted that she was certain he wasn’t into her. “I was so shy I asked a friend of mine to get her phone number,” he confessed.
He invited her to another show, and that’s when Lin-Manuel Miranda was able to win her over.
“When he came onstage, I thought, I really like this guy,” she revealed. “He was up there free-styling and weaving rhymes together. It’s pretty impressive. He’s really, really smart.”
After the show, the two bonded over the video game Grand Theft Auto. "I very coolly said, 'All right, you’re going to come over to my house tonight, and we’re going to play Grand Theft Auto and watch the Jay-Z movie and listen to Marc Anthony... After that, we very quickly gave each other keys to our apartments," Nadal revealed.
When did Lin-Manuel Miranda and Vanessa Nadal get married?
Miranda and Nadal got married on September 5, 2010 in Staatsburg, New York at the Belvedere Mansion. Nadal wore a strapless Oscar de la Renta gown for the big day, and looked like an absolute angel while walking down the aisle.
And it seems like Miranda has always been smitten with his wife. He once said about Nadal, "She knows she’s dope... She’s beautiful but not vain. She’s smart but not arrogant. It’s like, all killer, no filler."
And upon accepting his Tony Award for Best Original Score in 2016, he said (in a sonnet, of course), "My wife’s the reason anything gets done. She nudges me towards promise by degrees. She is a perfect symphony of one. Our son is her most beautiful reprise."
Do Lin-Manuel Miranda and Vanessa Nadal have kids?
Miranda and Nadal have two children together: son Sebastian, 6, born in 2014; and son Francisco, 3, born in 2018.
Miranda posted a picture of his Sebastian’s first lost tooth on Twitter, writing, “BREAKING: We got a first lost tooth here, I repeat, the five year old lost a tooth, pretty sure it is ALSO the first tooth he ever got…”
Nadal dove into online learning during the pandemic.
Nadal mentioned in an interview with InStyle that during the pandemic she was able to put her degree from MIT into use and helped her kids with online learning.
"Distance learning looks more like homeschooling in kindergarten and first grade... I feel lucky to be able to draw upon my training as a chemical engineer as I dive into the research on COVID-19," she said. "This kind of stuff sticks in my brain — unlike, say, how music notes work: the number of times my husband has explained a key change to me..."
Giving back is one of Nadal's passions.
Before she and Miranda made their fortune, Nadal was giving back to institutions and charities that she holds close to her heart.
“I always gave what I could every year to the organizations that meant something to me,” she said in a 2018 interview with Town & Country. “I’d give back to Hunter College High School. I’ve been doing that since I graduated. It’s not much, probably like $100 a year, but that was always something that was important to me to do. Then I did the same at MIT, too.”
Nadal also revealed how grateful she is to be a part of a family who focuses on philanthropy and giving back to their community.
“It’s inspiring that there’s a family that spends so much of their time giving back to the community. I feel like Luz and Luis [Lin-Manuel's parents] do it so much that it’s not a second thought for Lin. Writing the two charity songs that he’s done and giving his profits away — it’s not even a question.”
What is Lin-Manuel Miranda's net worth?
While Nadal's net worth is around $1 million, Miranda's net worth is estimated $80 million! He isn't an official EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winner, though he's only an Oscar away from becoming one.
Most of Miranda's net worth can be attributed to the success of "Hamilton," which Miranda wrote after reading Alexander Hamilton's 2004 biography, "Alexander Hamilton," by historian Ron Chernow.
Olivia Jakiel is an editor and writer who covers celebrity and entertainment news. Follow her on Instagram and keep up with her zingers on Twitter.