He is known for playing Tobey Cobb in the 2007 film Teeth and Eliot in the television fantasy series The Magicians.

[2] After attending Carnegie Mellon for "a year and a month or two",[3] he dropped out to film a role in a movie.

Appleman's credits on stage include the revival of Streamers at the Roundabout Theater Company, Clifford Odets' Paradise Lost at the American Repertory Theater, and the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play as Jesus.

Appleman played Zach on the NBC musical drama series Smash.

[4] He made his film debut in Beautiful Ohio and portrayed cartoonist Judd Winick in Pedro.