Michael Arden

Michael Arden, born Michael Jerrod Moore on October 6, 1982, in Midland, Texas, is an American actor, theatre director, and book writer whose Broadway career spans from 2003 to 2024. He has received two Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Musical, for the Broadway revival of Parade in 2023 and for Maybe Happy Ending in 2025, the latter production also earning Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Revival of a Musical in 2025.

Arden's early life was marked by significant hardship. His mother struggled with drugs and alcohol, and his father died by suicide when Arden was approximately two years old. From fifth grade onward, he was raised by his grandparents, Pat and Jim Moore, in Midland, Texas, where he attended Trinity School, a college preparatory institution. He was bullied during his youth for being gay. His interest in performance began at age four, when his grandparents took him to see Sesame Street Live. He went on to participate in the Pickwick Players, the youth performing company of Midland Community Theatre, and constructed theatrical sets in his grandparents' garage. A Presidential Scholar in the arts, he received a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy, graduating in 2001, and was subsequently accepted on a full scholarship to the Juilliard School's Drama Division, Group 34. He left Juilliard in 2003 to join the Broadway revival company of Big River.

Arden made his Broadway debut playing Tom Sawyer in the 2003 Roundabout and Deaf West revival of Big River. He starred in the Twyla Tharp musical The Times They Are A-Changin', based on the music of Bob Dylan, which ran at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego from January 25 to March 5, 2006, before transferring to Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where it played from October 26 to November 19, 2006. In 2007, he starred as John Robert in Ace at the Old Globe Theatre from January 13 to February 18, and that summer toured Europe as one of Barbra Streisand's Broadway Boys. From July to September 2010, he played the lead role in a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. Beginning in October 2014, he played Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse, a production that subsequently ran at Paper Mill Playhouse from March 4 to April 5, 2015. His additional Broadway credits include A Christmas Carol, Maybe Happy Ending, and King Lear.

Off-Broadway and regional credits include the 2004 production of Bare, a Pop Opera opposite John Hill, a November 2004 Broadway benefit concert performance of Pippin for World AIDS Day, and Adam Bock's Swimming in the Shallows at Second Stage Theatre in summer 2005. Regional credits encompass productions of God of Vengeance, Falsettoland, Harold and Maude, West Side Story, Songs for a New World, The Common Pursuit, and The Winter's Tale.

Arden's directing career has been equally prominent. He directed Deaf West Theatre's Broadway revival of Spring Awakening, which featured a cast of both deaf and hearing actors performing simultaneously in American Sign Language and English. The production originated at Inner City Arts in Los Angeles in September 2014, transferred to the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills in May 2015, and opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on September 27, 2015, earning Arden his first Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Musical. He subsequently directed the first Broadway revival of Once on This Island, which opened December 3, 2017, at the Circle in the Square Theatre and ran until January 6, 2019, receiving eight Tony nominations including a second Best Director nomination for Arden. He directed Annie at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2018 and Jefferson Mays in a one-man adaptation of A Christmas Carol at the Geffen Playhouse beginning in October 2018. He directed the American premiere of Maybe Happy Ending at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in January 2020, and in November 2022 directed a production of Jason Robert Brown's Parade for New York City Center's gala, which transferred to Broadway in March 2023 and won him the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. The Broadway premiere of Maybe Happy Ending opened in fall 2024 at the Belasco Theatre, winning Arden a second Tony for Best Direction of a Musical along with the production's awards for Best Musical and Best Revival of a Musical in 2025. Other directing credits include My Fair Lady at Bay Street Theater in Southampton, New York in August 2016, and productions of The Pride and Merrily We Roll Along at the Wallis Annenberg Center, the latter earning a 2017 Ovation Award nomination for Best Director of a Musical.

As a composer and writer, Arden has created works including Easter Rising, As You Like It, and Ripley. His television appearances include ABC's Grey's Anatomy, CBS's NUMB3RS, the Fox series The Return of Jezebel James, a recurring role as Joseph in NBC's Kings, guest appearances on The Closer and Bones, a recurring role on The Good Wife beginning in August 2011, and a regular role on the FX series Anger Management. His film work includes the independent film The Cave Movie (2009), Source Code (2011), and Bride Wars, in which he appeared as Kevin.

Arden is gay and has been with actor Andy Mientus since 2010. The two first met in 2006 at the opening night party for The Times They Are A-Changin'. They became engaged on June 23, 2014, each having independently planned a proposal to the other on the same day, and married on August 18, 2016, at Babington House in Somerset, England.