‘We Are Freestyle Love Supreme’ Trailer: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hip-Hop Improv Group Takes the Spotlight

If you remember watching the early days of the American version of Whose Line is it Anyway? in the late ’90s and early 2000s, you probably recall a game in which performer Wayne Brady would essentially freestyle his way through a song based on a suggestion from the audience. But he wasn’t the only one doing hip-hop improv around that time.

There was also Freestyle Love Supreme, a small improv group comprised of future big names like Lin-Manuel Miranda. That group is the subject of a feature length documentary called We Are Freestyle Love Supreme which played at Sundance earlier this year, and it’s about to debut on Hulu in just a few days. Here’s the first trailer.

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme Trailer

Freestyle Love Supreme was co-founded in 2003 by Miranda, Anthony Veneziale, and Thomas Kail, the latter of whom would go on to direct stage versions of In the Heights and Hamilton (and who was just today tapped to direct a Fiddler on the Roof remake). It featured a rotating cast of soon-to-be big names in American musical theater, none bigger than Miranda himself, who wrote and starred in the aforementioned Heights and Hamilton. Christopher Jackson, who played Benny in Heights and George Washington in Hamilton and also has credits on things like Moana, Oz, and Bull, was also on board, and Utkarsh Ambudkar, who you might recognize from The Mindy Project or the time he recapped the Oscars in rap form on stage halfway through the ceremony, was among the later additions to the cast.

The group actually had a short-lived television series on a network called Pivot several years ago, and you can watch a couple of clips from that below:

Here’s a behind the scenes video from Playbill from 2013, as well as a TEDx performance:

Andrew Fried directed We Are Freestyle Love Supreme. He’s a producer with a long list of credits and has also directed episodes of Chef’s Table, among other things. Here’s the documentary’s official synopsis:

Before the world knew of the Broadway musicals In The Heights and Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda started an improv hip-hop group called Freestyle Love Supreme. This film chronicles the group’s 15-year journey, culminating with performances in 2019.

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme arrives on Hulu on June 5, 2020. Here’s the official poster: