Arlen Escarpeta

Arlen Escarpeta
Escarpeta at WonderCon 2014.
Born	Arlen Alexander Escarpeta (1981-04-09) April 9, 1981 Belize
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2000–present
Spouse	Benita Nall ​ ​ (m. 2011; div. 2012)​

Arlen Alexander Escarpeta (born April 9, 1981) is a Belizean-born American actor. He originally gained recognition for his main role as Samuel "Sam" Walker on the NBC television series American Dreams (2002–2005).

In the mid-to-late 2000s, Escarpeta portrayed college football player Reggie Oliver in the biographical film We Are Marshall (2006) and had a supporting role in the slasher film Friday the 13th (2009). In the 2010s, Escarpeta starred in the films Brotherhood (2010), Final Destination 5 (2011), and Into the Storm (2014), and portrayed singer Bobby Brown in the Lifetime television film Whitney (2015). Escarpeta had a main role as Officer Damon Byrd on the Crackle series The Oath (2018).

In the 2020s, Escarpeta had main roles as Adult JG on season 2 of the OWN series David Makes Man (2021) and Zeke Wallace on the NBC series Found (2023–2025).

Career

In 2000, Escarpeta received his first on-screen role in Greg Morgan's The Playaz Court. In the following years, he appeared in various television programs such as Boston Public, The Shield, Judging Amy and Boomtown. In 2002, Escarpeta appeared in High Crimes. In that same year, he was cast as Sam Walker in the historical drama series American Dreams, which aired on NBC.

Escarpeta then appeared in American Gun. He also appeared television shows ER and Cold Case. The following year, he co-starred with Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox in true-life drama We Are Marshall.

In 2007, Escarpeta appeared in David Wain's comedy film, The Ten. He made appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Without a Trace, respectively. In 2009, he starred in Preston Whitmore's Dough Boys. He also starred as a young LAPD officer on patrol during the racial gang war in the drama 818, on which Escarpeta also served as co-producer. He appeared as Lawrence in the 2009 version of Friday the 13th. He followed the film with an additional television appearance on the short-lived medical drama, Mental.

Escarpeta followed Friday the 13th with leading roles in several features, including Brotherhood. Escarpeta had a role in Final Destination 5 as Nathan Sears, and he dubbed the same role in the Latin Spanish dub. It was the fifth film in the horror franchise, and was featured in 3D.

In November 2011, Escarpeta made an appearance on The CW's The Secret Circle. He also appeared in an episode of FOX's House (2012), NBC's Grimm (2014), and CBS' Extant (2014).

Escarpeta played the role of Bobby Brown in the Whitney Houston biopic, Whitney, airing on Lifetime on January 17, 2015.

Filmography

Film and TV Movies

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2000	The Playaz Court	Reggie
2002	High Crimes	Guard #2
2005	American Gun	Jay
2006	The Substance of Things Hoped For	Patrolman Powers
	We Are Marshall	Reggie Oliver
2007	The Ten	Todd Jaffe
2009	Dough Boys	Corey
	Friday the 13th	Lawrence
2010	Brotherhood	Mike
	Privileged	Deshaun	Video
2011	Midnight Son	Russell
	Final Destination 5	Nathan Sears
2013	Star Trek Into Darkness	Additional Voices (voice)
	Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th	Himself	Documentary film
2014	Frenzy	Marcus	Short
	Into the Storm	Daryl
2015	Whitney	Bobby Brown	TV movie
2016	Wolves at the Door	Officer
2017	Question 50	Landry	Short

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Boston Public	Scott	Episode: "Chapter One"
2001	Judging Amy	Driver	Episode: "Look Closer"
2002	The Shield	Sonny	Episode: "Circles"
	Boomtown	Cantrel LaFontaine	Episode: "Pilot"
2002–2005	American Dreams	Samuel "Sam" Walker	Main cast
2005	ER	Adrian	Episode: "Refusal of Care"
	Judging Amy	Anhel	Episode: "Getting Out"
	Cold Case	Clyde Taylor	Episode: "Colors"
2006	7th Heaven	Detention Student #2	Episode: "The Magic of Gershwin"
2007	Without a Trace	Peter Taha	Episode: "Lost Boy"
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Ezra Odami	Episode: "Fight"
2009	Mental	Lt. Clay Jefferson	Episode: "Lines in the Sand"
2011	The Secret Circle	Holden Glaser	Episode: "Balcoin"
	NCIS: Los Angeles	Chester Wilkins	Episode: "Higher Power"
	David Tutera's CELEBrations	Himself	Episode: "Hollywood Glam Bride"
2012	House	Private Brant Macklin	Episode: "Blowing the Whistle"
	The Client List	Bobby Burnett	Episode: "Ring True"
2014	Extant	Tim Dawkins	Episode: "Wish You Were Here"
	Grimm	Clay Pittman	Episode: "The Last Fight"
2015	NCIS	Randall White	Episode: "The Enemy Within"
2017	Bronzeville	Himself	Episode: "6, 42, 63"
2017–2018	The Magicians	Prince Ess	Recurring cast: season 2-3
2018	The Oath	Damon Boyd	Main cast: season 1
	S.W.A.T	Devlin	Episode: "S.O.S." & "Inheritance"
2019	I Am the Night	Xander	Recurring cast
2021	David Makes Man	Adult JG	Main cast: season 2
2023–2025	Found	Zeke Wallace	Main cast

External links

• Arlen Escarpeta at IMDb