After high school, McCarrell attended Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music where he was a Musical Theatre major. While at BW, he performed in many university shows including: Wild Party (Phil), Pippin (Lewis), Rent (Mark), Passing Strange (Reverend Jones, Terry, Christophe, Hugo), Titanic (J. Bruce Ismay), Sweeney Todd (Anthony), and Next to Normal (Gabe Goodman). He graduated in 2013.

Later in 2013, McCarrell was cast in a concert of 35MM. The show was on October 7, 2013 at 54 Below and the cast included many Broadway stars such as: Lauren Pritchard (Spring Awakening), Lesli Margherita (Matilda), and Zachary Levi (First Date), among others.

McCarrell went on to audition for the 2014 Broadway Revival of Les Misérables, originally reading for the role of the student revolutionary, Marius Pontmercy. However, a few months after his original reading, he was called back to audition for one of the other students, Joly. McCarrell was then hired to perform as Joly, as well as understudy the role of Marius. During the same year, McCarrell was cast as Lost Boy Nibs in the NBC television special, Peter Pan Live! which aired on December 4, 2014.

After a brief rehearsal period, McCarrell officially replaced cast member Andy Mientus in Les Misérables on March 3, 2015 and performed as Marius at the Imperial Theatre until the show’s closing on September 4, 2016.

On June 1, 2015, McCarrell performed a sold-out solo concert at 54 Below, and appeared there again on December 7, 2015 in “Christmas Carols with Chris McCarrell”.

Following the end of Les Misérables, McCarrell performed as the titular character in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, which ran from March 23, 2017 to May 6, 2017 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. On August 28, 2017, he reprised his role as Percy in a sold-out The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical concert at The Green Room 42. In late 2019-early 2020, he played Percy in the broadway run of The Lightning Thief.