Anthony Ramos has built a career that moves comfortably between Broadway musicals, recording studios, animated films and blockbuster action. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he discovered performing after initially imagining a very different future for himself. His combination of acting and musical ability eventually carried him from theater training to one of Broadway’s biggest productions. Hamilton gave him the breakthrough that introduced his talents to a much wider audience. Since then, Ramos has steadily expanded his range, proving equally comfortable singing through an emotional musical and running through the chaos of a major action movie.
Ramos joined the original Broadway cast of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, playing the dual roles of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton. Switching between the two characters allowed him to demonstrate both his energy and emotional range. The musical became a cultural phenomenon, and its success gave Ramos a major platform from which to explore opportunities beyond the stage.
Television soon provided another showcase. In Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, Ramos played Mars Blackmon, a character originally portrayed by Lee in his 1986 film. Ramos brought his own comic energy and personality to the role. He also appeared in the 2018 film A Star Is Born as Ramon, a friend of Lady Gaga’s character Ally, placing him alongside Gaga and Bradley Cooper in one of that year’s most prominent films.
His Broadway background became especially valuable with In the Heights in 2021. Ramos took the central role of Usnavi, a Washington Heights bodega owner balancing dreams for his future with his attachment to his neighborhood and community. The film gave him the opportunity to combine acting, singing and dancing in a leading cinematic role. He has also expanded into voice acting, including playing Mr. Piranha in the animated comedy The Bad Guys.
Ramos subsequently entered blockbuster territory as Noah Diaz in 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Surrounded by large scale visual effects and elaborate action sequences, he demonstrated that the skills developed through physically demanding stage performances could translate naturally into action filmmaking.
That trajectory continued with Twisters in 2024, where Ramos played storm chaser Javi alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell. The disaster film added another physically demanding production to his increasingly varied résumé and allowed him to explore a more grounded action role.
What makes Ramos’s career particularly interesting is that each new direction builds on skills established earlier. Theater gave him discipline and stage presence, music strengthened his performance identity, and film opened the door to increasingly ambitious roles. From Hamilton to Transformers and Twisters, Ramos has turned versatility into the defining feature of his career.
