Michael Jerrod Moore (born October 6, 1982), also known as Michael Arden, is an American stage actor, singer, and composer. He was born in Midland, Texas.

Early and personal life

Growing up in Midland, Texas, he was active in the Pickwick Players, Midland's youth performing company. He was a student at Trinity School, a college preparatory school in Midland. A Presidential Scholar in the arts, he received a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy as a theatre student, where he graduated in 2001, and was accepted on a full scholarship at the Juilliard School. He left Juilliard in 2003 to join the Broadway revival company of the musical Big River.

Acting

Theatre

Arden made his Broadway debut as Tom Sawyer in the 2003 Roundabout and Deaf West revival of Big River. He also starred opposite John Hill in the 2004 off-Broadway show Bare, a Pop Opera. In Summer 2005, he played Nick, a sexually promiscuous gay man in love with a shark, in Adam Bock's surreal play Swimming in the Shallows at New York's Second Stage Theatre. He played the title character in Pippin for the World AIDS Day Broadway benefit concert in November 2004. He recently starred in the new Twyla Tharp musical The Times They Are A-Changin' based on the music of Bob Dylan. The Times ran January 25 to March 5, 2006 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California and opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on October 26, 2006, ending its short run on November 19, 2006. In 2007 he starred as John Robert in Ace, at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre from January 13 to February 18. In the summer of 2007 he toured Europe with Barbra Streisand as one of her "Broadway Boys."

Arden's regional theatre credits include Pippin, God of Vengeance, Falsettoland, Tom Jones' Harold and Maude, West Side Story, Songs for a New World, The Common Pursuit and The Winter's Tale.

Television

He has appeared in television on ABC's Grey's Anatomy (episode "17 Seconds" as Neal Hannigan) and in Numb3rs for CBS. He has also been seen co-starring with Donald Trump in a Domino's Pizza television commercial, and with Regis and Kelly in a 2006 Commerce Bank commercial. He was cast in the Fox show The Return of Jezebel James, which aired and was cancelled after three episodes in the spring of 2008. Arden recently had a recurring role in the NBC series Kings as Joseph, the secret boyfriend of the closeted gay heir to the throne, Prince Jack Benjamin. He also guest starred in an episode of The Closer as James Clark, a schizophrenic murder suspect, as well as guest starring in an episode of Bones as Harold Prescott. He will be starring alongside Radha Mitchell, Jeffrey Nordling, and John Heard in the new A&E drama The Quickening.

Film

Having also done work in film, he is a featured actor in director Colin Spoelman's independent effort "Underground", the story of five friends who become trapped inside a cave system deep below a mountain ridge in central Kentucky. He is also in the movie Bride Wars.

Writing

Composer

As a composer, Arden has written several works, including Easter Rising, As You Like It, and Ripley.

References

External links