2000–2011: Early career and Broadway Arcelus has made a career in theater on Broadway, regionally, and internationally. He began his career in the early 2000s, and spent three years working at an international business firm while auditioning and performing in
amateur theater at night. He joined the
repertory theater company of Weathervane Theatre in
Whitefield, New Hampshire, for their 2001 season; at Weathervane, he performed in productions including
Floyd Collins,
Cabaret, and ''
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Following this experience he took part in a bilingual production of West Side Story'' in
Guatemala. Arcelus made his Broadway debut in 2002 in
Rent, first as a
swing, covering the male ensemble roles as well as Mark and Roger, and then as Roger throughout the first half of 2003. He remained with
Rent as a swing until Fall 2004. Some of his first professional screen acting roles were for English-language
dubs of
animated TV shows. He continued to do this throughout the 2000s and voiced characters in shows including
Winx Club and multiple series within the
Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. In 2004, Arcelus appeared in the movie musical
Temptation, with Broadway stars
Alice Ripley,
Adam Pascal, and
Zoe Saldaña, among many others. During the spring of 2005, he starred as Jan in the original cast of the
Beach Boys musical,
Good Vibrations. He played
Fiyero on the first national tour of
Wicked from January 3 until October 3, 2006. He then reprised the role of Fiyero in the Broadway production from January 9 to December 16, 2007. Arcelus was featured on
iChannel, an interactive 2006 web-series about "a self-conscious young man who finds his life taken over by a
video blog." He starred as
Bob Gaudio in the Broadway production of
Jersey Boys from January 10, 2008, to January 11, 2009. before starring in
Happiness, a musical which ran Off-Broadway at
Lincoln Center Theater's
Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater for fourteen weeks beginning on February 27, 2009. He resumed the role of Bob Gaudio in the Broadway production of
Jersey Boys on July 14, 2009, and finished the role on October 10, 2010. He originated the role of Buddy in
Elf the Musical for a limited engagement run from November 10, 2010, through January 2, 2011, at Broadway's
Al Hirschfeld Theater. He assumed the role of Jack Chesney in ''
Where's Charley?'' in a concert production as part of
New York City Center's
Encores! series from March 17–20, 2011. From May 6 through June 19, 2011, took part in the original stage production of
A Time to Kill, premiering at the
Arena Stage in
Washington, D.C., based on the
John Grisham novel of the same name; Arcelus originated the role of Jake Brigance. Later that summer, Arcelus filmed and helped produce the independent feature film
The Last Day of August, which premiered in October 2012. In November 2011, Arcelus starred in an off-Broadway limited engagement musical production of
The Blue Flower at
Second Stage, along with
Marc Kudisch and
Teal Wicks.
2012–present: Madam Secretary and Into the Woods In 2012, Arcelus starred in the independent film
The Last Day of August. Later that year, he was cast as Lucas Goodwin in the Netflix TV series
House of Cards. From 2013 to 2016, he had a recurring role in the show's first, second, and fourth seasons. In 2013, Arcelus reprised his role of Jake Brigance in the Broadway production of
A Time To Kill at the
Golden Theatre in
New York City, which premiered on October 20, 2013. As part of the collective The Grundleshotz, Arcelus co-wrote the musical ''
Gettin' the Band Back Together''. Following four years of improvisational rehearsals, the musical debuted regionally in 2013 at the
George Street Playhouse in New Jersey before receiving a pre-Broadway workshop in 2014. The musical played on Broadway at the
Belasco Theatre during Summer 2018. In early 2014, he was cast in the
Cinemax pilot Blanco. Soon after, he also joined the cast
The Best of Me, based on the
Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name. In 2014, he began portraying Jay Whitman on the
CBS drama
Madam Secretary. After having a
recurring role during the first two seasons of the show, Arcelus became part of the main cast for the final four seasons of the show; he acted in one hundred episodes before the series concluded in December 2019. Since 2014, Arcelus has also had small roles in the films
Ted 2 (2015) and
Split (2016), as well as guest roles in shows including
The Leftovers,
FBI, and
Bull. He joined the cast of the
Steve McQueen miniseries
Codes of Conduct, which was given a limited series order by
HBO in 2015. The project was ultimately scrapped by the network the following year. In 2016, Arcelus had a six-episode arc in
HBO's
The Deuce. In August 2022, it was announced that Arcelus would return to Broadway by replacing
Brian d'Arcy James as the Baker in the revival of
Into the Woods beginning September 6 and that he would star alongside his wife
Stephanie J. Block who plays the Baker's Wife. He played his final performance on October 23, 2022. In December 2022, it was announced that Arcelus and Block would reprise their roles in the production's U.S. national tour, which launched in early 2023. During the same month, it was announced that Arcelus would also return to the Broadway production beginning January 3, 2023, and continue with the show through its final performance on January 8. ==Personal life==