Ari Afsar

Born Arianna Ayesha Afsar in San Diego, California, Ari Afsar is a singer and actress with credits in musical theater, film, and television. A one-time American Idol contestant (2009) and Miss California (2010), she was cast as Eliza Hamilton in the first Chicago production of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton in 2016, the same year she released her debut single, "Love You I Don't." Afsar charted in the U.S. in 2018 as part of a quintet of Elizas on "First Burn," an alternate version of "Burn" from the blockbuster musical. Raised and based in Southern California, Afsar started singing at the age of six. She competed in pageants as a teen, and at 16 she auditioned for the eighth season of American Idol, eventually advancing as far as the live semifinals in early 2009. That same year, she graduated from high school and enrolled at UCLA to study vocal performance. Afsar was crowned Miss California in 2010 and finished in the final ten of the Miss America pageant in 2011. While pursuing acting work after finishing her degree, she landed a handful of guest spots on television series including Unusual Suspects and Tattoo Nightmares in 2014. That same year she appeared in the Punjabi-language American comedy Mauj Mastiyan (Taste of Love), and followed it with a role in the film Martian Land in 2015. In 2016, Afsar self-released her official debut single, a soulful ballad called "Love You I Don't." In September of that year, she began a run as Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton in the original Chicago production of the musical Hamilton, and remained with the show until March 2018. A month later, she sang with Rachelle Ann Go, Julia Harriman, Lexi Lawson, and Shoba Narayan -- all Eliza Hamiltons from other productions of Hamilton -- on "First Burn." An early draft of "Burn" offered as part of Lin-Manuel Miranda's monthly #Hamildrop series, it charted on the Billboard digital songs chart. ~ Marcy Donelson