What great news to start a new Jewish year with: Actors Daveed Diggs and Emmy Raver-Lampman are having a baby. The couple, who met while working together on a not-so-little-known musical by the name of “Hamilton” (were Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail the matchmakers??) just announced their pregnancy with a seriously adorable Instagram post.
The post — a shared one from both of their accounts — was captioned “we can’t wait to meet you” and featured three pictures of Diggs, 41, and Raver-Lampman, 35, impeccably dressed and brimming with joy as they cradled Raver-Lampman’s bump. Each picture is a different peak of cuteness — in one, Diggs kisses her forehead, in another, they both laugh exuberantly together.
The couple’s “Hamilton” co-stars were quick to congratulate the two, with Leslie Odom Jr. commenting, “Freshly braided and twisted…we gon all be alright. 🤌🏾♥️” and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who recently worked with Diggs again on “The Little Mermaid,” shared a happy GIF of Diggs in a suit.
Honestly, this is one of my favorite celebrity couples — they’re always so incredibly good in everything they’re in, from “Umbrella Academy” to “Blindspotting” to “Snow Piercer” and “Extrapolations.” I’m so thrilled for this future lucky baby!
Diggs and Raver-Lampman met in 2015 while working on the Broadway production of “Hamilton.” Diggs played the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson and she was part of the ensemble, and later went on to play Angelica in the West Coast tour of the musical. Apparently their budding romance has influenced the way the play is set to this day. “If you are learning the Lafayette track and the woman 5 track you will find that they intersect in like a hundred places in the first track and that’s just because I was standing close to Emmy,” Diggs revealed in an interview. Here’s hoping they collaborate on some music together some day, a-la another Hamilton Jew-ish couple, Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson.
Diggs, who says he grew up “Berkeley Jewish,” went to Hebrew school but didn’t have a bar mitzvah — but being Black and Jewish in Berkeley was not an anomaly. “I was not the only person at Temple Beth-El with a Jewish mom and Black dad,” he’s said.
His mother, Barbara, was a social worker who once worked the lights on the European tour of “Fiddler of the Roof” with Zero Mostel. She met his dad, Dountes, a bus driver, while working as a DJ, and they gave their son the name Daveed, the Hebrew pronunciation of David. Diggs says he credits his parents for always supporting him when he wanted to do something out of the box.
Daveed is responsible for the bop that is “Puppy For Hanukkah,” arguably the catchiest song about the festival of lights — he and his band, Clipping., were drawn to make the song because they love a challenge. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, he said that after the release of the song a friend texted him saying “thousands of Jewish parents are cursing you under their breath” for encouraging their kid to ask for a new Hanukkah pet.
Diggs grew closer to his religion most recently when he played a rabbi in the Apple TV+ show “Extrapolations.”
“[It] was just really interesting, to reconnect with religion in a different way than I did when I was young. But the same religion that I claim I practice, because occasionally I light a candle,” he told The Independent.
While we don’t know if this baby will get a puppy for Hanukkah — Raver-Lampman already has a puppy named Luna Lovegood Raver-Lampman — we do know that they will grow up in a very stylish home. This video of Diggs’ and Raver-Lampman’s home in Architectural Digest is so charming and makes it look like a total LA oasis, perfect for raising a newborn (th0ugh I’m sure they’ll baby proof that pool!).
We wish Raver-Lampman an easy pregnancy and we also can’t wait to meet this little bundle of joy!
