Sebastian Arcelus
Sebastian Arcelus (born November 5, 1976)[1] is an American actor, best known for his roles as Lucas Goodwin on the Netflix thriller series House of Cards (2013–2016) and Jay Whitman on the CBS political drama series Madam Secretary (2014–2019). Arcelus began his acting career in the early 2000s and spent the first decade of his career on Broadway, having played Roger in Rent, Fiyero in Wicked, Bob Gaudio in Jersey Boys, and Buddy in Elf, among other roles. He returned to Broadway with the 2022 revival of Into the Woods and its subsequent national tour.
Sebastian Arcelus
Early life and background[edit]
Arcelus was born in New York City and grew up in Port Washington, New York.[2][3] He is a first generation American of Uruguayan, Italian, and Russian descent, and speaks Spanish fluently. He is a graduate of Williams College.[3]
Career[edit]
2000–2011: Early career and Broadway[edit]
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.[3] He performed in a handful of small New York theater productions as well as regional productions like that of The Who's Tommy in Newark, New Jersey in 2000 and Big River in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.[4][5] 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.[6] 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 Saldana, 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."[7]
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.[8] 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.[9]
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.[10]
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.[11] 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.[12] Later that summer, Arcelus filmed and helped produce the independent feature film The Last Day of August, which premiered in October 2012.[13] 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.[14]