EW's Best of Shows podcast: Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Melissa Fumero on Lin-Manuel Miranda's episode, Gina's return

Brooklyn Nine-Nine type TV Show network NBC

Fox genre Crime Where to watch Close Streaming Options

On March 7, Hamilton creator and official Guardian of the Nine-Nine Lin-Manuel Miranda will appear on Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Amy Santiago's brother David — and it's a guest spot that's been a long time coming. Like, years. So says Melissa Fumero, who plays hyper-organized Sgt. Santiago on the NBC comedy. "I have literally been pitching Lin as a brother I think since, like, season 1 when he first tweeted about the show," she told EW's Best of Shows podcast. "Hamilton hadn't come out yet. But I am a huge fan of In the Heights so I was like, ‘Oh my God, Lin-Manuel Miranda loves the show!' and people were like, ‘Who dat?' And then Hamilton came out and everybody knew who he was."

Fumero says Miranda absolutely started to "geek out" when he arrived on the set. "It was so weird for everyone. He was like making up songs about, ‘I'm on my favorite show, I'm inside my faaa-vorite show!' And we were like, ‘No, you don't get to geek out—we all get to geek out.'" The Tony-winner channeled his love for the show into a spot-on performance as the elder Santiago, who Fumero says Amy is "very competitive with."

"He sort of did his character based off Amy a little bit," she explains. "He plays the character like such a Santiago."

In other momentous Nine-Nine news, not only will Chelsea Peretti's beloved character Gina be returning later this season in an episode called "Return of the King," Fumero herself directed the episode! "We get to see Gina again and we get to see what she's doing," says Fumero. "Her new life has sort of exploded, and it's very exciting, it's very funny, and it's very Gina."

To hear more from Fumero — including whether she thinks Amy will eventually take Jake's last name — check out the full episode below. You can also listen and subscribe to EW's Best of Shows podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available every Monday morning. Tweet counterarguments to @KristenGBaldwin or @DarrenFranich. And for a full wrap-up of the 2019 Oscars, check out EW's The Awardist podcast. <iframe src="https://player.megaphone.fm/DGT6983351487?" width="100%" height="200" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="" allowfullscreen="" resize="0" replace_attributes="1" name=""></iframe>

Related content: