Character actor Michael Arden first entered the public eye with a choice supporting role on the prime-time seriocomedy The Return of Jezebel James, created by Gilmore Girls producer Amy Sherman-Palladino. The series, which premiered in winter 2008, told of a children's book editor named Sarah Thomkins (Parker Posey) who turns to her estranged sister, Coco (Lauren Ambrose), for surrogate motherhood when faced with the news that she herself cannot conceive. Arden co-starred as Buddy, Sarah's ambidextrous professional assistant. The show was quickly canceled after only three episodes, but it proved to be a good lauching pad into other screen roles for the Broadway vet. He played a supporting role in Bride Wars (2009), and then joined Charlie Sheen's FX sitcom Anger Management. Arden returned to his theatre roots, directing the Broadway reimagining of Spring Awakening with the Deaf West Theatre, earning him a Tony nomination for Best Direction of a Musical.
Michael Arden
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- Was a 2001 presidential scholar at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.
- Left Juilliard to make his Broadway debut (as Tom Sawyer) in a 2003 revival of Big River, beginning a stage career that also included The Times They Are A-Changin' (Twyla Tharp's 2006 musical celebration of Bob Dylan's music) and a 2010 London revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love.
- Wrote the score for the 2004 off-Broadway musical Easter Rising; was the assistant director of a 2008 Broadway adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities.
- Knows American sign language (ASL).