Age: 44
male
Leslie Odom Jr. (born August 6, 1981) is an American actor and singer. He has performed on Broadway and in television and film, and has released two solo jazz albums. He is known for originating the role of Aaron Burr in the Broadway musical Hamilton, a performance for which he won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album as a principal vocalist. His television roles included Sam Strickland in the musical series Smash (2012–2013). He is also the author of the 2018 book Failing Up.
During the Second Continental Congress, currently underway in Philadelphia, the motion to declare the colonies' independence from Great Britain, introduced by John Adams, a delegate from Massachusetts, is not debated, preferring to address more trivial matters. Benjamin Franklin, a delegate from Pennsylvania, strategically suggests that he have another delegate propose the resolution. The choice falls on the impetuous and extroverted Richard Henry Lee, who accepts and returns to Virginia to obtain authorization from the state legislature. Having overcome the first hurdle, Lee's new motion faces objections from John Dickinson, a delegate from Pennsylvania and leader of the conservative faction inclined to reconciliation with Great Britain, who manages to obtain a unanimous quorum given the importance of the independence motion. Adams, to gain time to seek greater consensus, requests a postponement for the drafting of a declaration of injustice, entrusted to a committee of five delegates, but in reality the drafting is entrusted almost entirely to Thomas Jefferson, delegate from Virginia.
