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Michael Arden
Michael Jerrod Moore (born October 6, 1982), known professionally as Michael Arden, is an American actor and theatre director. Arden has received two Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Musical, winning for the revival of the musical Parade in 2023 and Maybe Happy Ending in 2025.
Arden described his upbringing as "rocky." He was born to a very young mother who struggled with drugs and alcohol and his father died by suicide when Arden was around 2 years old. Arden went on to live with his grandparents, Pat and Jim Moore, in Midland, Texas from the 5th grade onwards. Starting in the 5th grade, he was a student at Trinity School, a college preparatory school in Midland. He was bullied in his youth for being gay.
Arden's interest in acting began when he was four years old and his grandparents took him to see Sesame Street Live. He was active in the Pickwick Players, Midland Community Theatre's youth performing company. He also built theatrical sets in his grandparents' garage. A Presidential Scholar in the arts, he received a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy as a theater student, where he graduated in 2001. He was accepted on a full scholarship to the Juilliard School, where he was in the Drama Division's Group 34 (2001–2005). He left Juilliard in 2003 to join the Broadway revival company of the musical Big River.
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 starred in the Twyla Tharp musical The Times They Are A-Changin', based on the music of Bob Dylan, which ran January 25 to March 5, 2006, at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California and then on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre 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. In the summer of 2007, he toured Europe with Barbra Streisand as one of her "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.
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.
Beginning in October 2014, Arden played the role of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse. The production ran from October 26 to December 7, 2014, and at Paper Mill Playhouse from March 4 to April 5, 2015.
Arden directed Deaf West Theatre's acclaimed Broadway revival of Spring Awakening. The production featured a cast made up of both deaf and hearing actors, performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and English. The production began in at Inner City Arts in Los Angeles in September 2014, transferred to the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills in May 2015, and finally transferred to Broadway, where it began previews September 8, 2015, and opened on September 27, 2015, at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. On May 3, 2016, Arden received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his work on the Spring Awakening revival.
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Michael Arden
Michael Jerrod Moore (born October 6, 1982), known professionally as Michael Arden, is an American actor and theatre director. Arden has received two Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Musical, winning for the revival of the musical Parade in 2023 and Maybe Happy Ending in 2025.
Arden described his upbringing as "rocky." He was born to a very young mother who struggled with drugs and alcohol and his father died by suicide when Arden was around 2 years old. Arden went on to live with his grandparents, Pat and Jim Moore, in Midland, Texas from the 5th grade onwards. Starting in the 5th grade, he was a student at Trinity School, a college preparatory school in Midland. He was bullied in his youth for being gay.
Arden's interest in acting began when he was four years old and his grandparents took him to see Sesame Street Live. He was active in the Pickwick Players, Midland Community Theatre's youth performing company. He also built theatrical sets in his grandparents' garage. A Presidential Scholar in the arts, he received a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy as a theater student, where he graduated in 2001. He was accepted on a full scholarship to the Juilliard School, where he was in the Drama Division's Group 34 (2001–2005). He left Juilliard in 2003 to join the Broadway revival company of the musical Big River.
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 starred in the Twyla Tharp musical The Times They Are A-Changin', based on the music of Bob Dylan, which ran January 25 to March 5, 2006, at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California and then on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre 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. In the summer of 2007, he toured Europe with Barbra Streisand as one of her "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.
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.
Beginning in October 2014, Arden played the role of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse. The production ran from October 26 to December 7, 2014, and at Paper Mill Playhouse from March 4 to April 5, 2015.
Arden directed Deaf West Theatre's acclaimed Broadway revival of Spring Awakening. The production featured a cast made up of both deaf and hearing actors, performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and English. The production began in at Inner City Arts in Los Angeles in September 2014, transferred to the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills in May 2015, and finally transferred to Broadway, where it began previews September 8, 2015, and opened on September 27, 2015, at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. On May 3, 2016, Arden received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his work on the Spring Awakening revival.