Arlen Alexander Escarpeta (born 1981 or 1982) is a Belizean and American actor. He originally gained recognition for his main role as Samuel "Sam" Walker on the NBC television series American Dreams (2002–2005), and had his breakthrough in cinema, portraying the character of Nathan Sears in Final Destination 5 (2011).
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Early life and career
Arlen Escarpeta was born in Belize, and moved to the United States along with his mother and his sister, soon after his father died in Belize. The family settled in Inglewood, and later moved to Los Angeles.
Escarpeta began exploring acting when he was 10 years old, playing the main role of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Upon graduating from college, he began to pursue his career, earning his first role in 2000, when he joined the cast of The Playaz Court, a movie by Greg Morgan. In the following years, Escarpeta appeared in various television programs such as Boston Public, The Shield, Judging Amy and Boomtownand, in 2002, he got a role in High Crimes. That same year, Escarpeta was cast as Sam Walker in the historical drama series American Dreams, which aired on NBC.
He began having more recurrent characters, portraying college football player Reggie Oliver in the biographical film We Are Marshall (2006) and achieving the supporting role in the slasher film Friday the 13th (2009). In the 2010s, Escarpeta starred in the films Brotherhood (2010), and Into the Storm (2014). He also portrayed singer Bobby Brown in the Lifetime television film Whitney (2015) and led the main role of Crackle series The Oath (2018) as Officer Damon Byrd.
