Arlen Escarpeta

Arlen Alexander Escarpeta (born 1981 or 1982^[1]) 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).

Arlen Escarpeta was born in Belize,^[2] 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,^[3] and later moved to Los Angeles.^[2]

Escarpeta began exploring acting when he was 10 years old, playing the main role of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.^[4][5] 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.^[2] 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.^[6][2][5]

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.^[4]

Escarpeta had a breakthrough role in Final Destination 5 (2011), where he portrayed Nathan Sears. He subsequently dubbed the character in the Latin Spanish film version. FD5 was the fifth film in the horror franchise, and was featured in 3D.^[5][7]

In November 2011, he made an appearance on The CW's The Secret Circle. He later appeared in an episode of FOX's House (2012), NBC's Grimm (2014), and CBS' Extant (2014).^[5][6]

In the 2020s, Escarpeta returned to playing main roles, including as Adult JG on season 2 of the OWN series David Makes Man (2021)^[4] and Zeke Wallace on the NBC series Found (2023–2025).^[8]

Escarpeta visits often his native country of Belize, where his grandmother still lives, working in the training of boxers.^[6] He considers his Belizean heritage as foundational in his life and admires Belize's demographic diversity and multilingualism. He has also stated that, in Belize, while English is the official language, others like Spanish and Belizean Creole are widely spoken.^[5] Escarpeta, who is fluent in Spanish, said that he had to adapt to only using English when he moved with his mother and sister to the United States.^[5]

Escarpeta married American actress LaToya Tonodeo in June 2025, at a private ceremony in Laguna Niguel, California.^[9]

• Arlen Escarpeta at IMDb