Tyler Sage Alvarez (born October 25, 1997) is an American actor, known for his roles as Diego Rueda in

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

's teen sitcom ''

Every Witch Way ''Every Witch Way'' is a telenovela-formatted teen sitcom that originally aired on Nickelodeon from January 1, 2014, to July 30, 2015. The first season aired as a "One Month Event", where the first 20-episode season aired every weeknight in Janu ...

'' and Peter Maldonado in

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

's mockumentary series ''

American Vandal ''American Vandal'' is an American mockumentary television series created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda that premiered on September 15, 2017, on Netflix. The series is a parody of true crime documentaries such as ''Making a Murderer'' and '' ...

''.

Early life

Alvarez was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, to a first generation

Cuban American Cuban Americans ( es, cubanoestadounidenses or ''cubanoamericanos'') are Americans who trace their cultural heritage to Cuba regardless of phenotype or ethnic origin. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of Cuban descent or ...

father, and a fourth generation

Puerto Rican American Stateside Puerto Ricans ( es, link=no, Puertorriqueños de Estados Unidos), also ambiguously known as Puerto Rican Americans ( es, link=no, puertorriqueño-americanos,), or Puerto Ricans in the United States, are Puerto Ricans who are in the U ...

mother. His father works for the

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within th ...

and his mother works as a nurse administrator for a private hospital. He had one older brother, Niko, who died in October 2018. Alvarez's parents divorced when he was a child and both subsequently remarried. He has two younger half-siblings, Alex and Brianna, from his father, and a younger half-sister, Sofia, from his mother. Alvarez was educated at

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, often referred to simply as LaGuardia, is a public high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, located near Lincoln Center in the Lincoln Square n ...

, and at

Jericho High School Jericho High School is an American comprehensive public high school in the hamlet of Jericho in Nassau County, New York. It is the only high school in the Jericho Union Free School District. It opened in 1959. As of the 2014-15 school yea ...

Jericho, New York Jericho is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, New York, United States, on the North Shore of Long Island, approximately 29 miles (47 km) east of Midtown Manhattan. Its population was 13,567 as of the U.S. 2010 Cen ...

. He is fluent in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

Career

Alvarez's first professional acting job was in a

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commercial. In 2014, he began starring as Diego Rueda, a human with magical powers, in

's teen sitcom ''

''. The following year, Alvarez began portraying Benny Mendoza, the eldest son of Litchfield inmate Gloria Mendoza, in

's comedy-drama series ''

Orange Is the New Black ''Orange Is the New Black'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''OITNB'') is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir '' Orange Is the New Black: My Year in ...

''. In 2017, he began playing the lead role of Peter Maldonado in Netflix's true crime mockumentary series ''

''. He returned for the second season which aired in 2018. The series has since been cancelled by Netflix. Tyler Alvarez also appeared in the YouTube satirical miniseries ''¡Me Llamo Alma!'', starring as Miguel. In 2020, Alvarez made his

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

debut with the Roundabout Theatre Company's play ''72 Miles to Go''. The production closed prematurely due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. Alvarez joined the cast of Netflix show ''

Never Have I Ever "Never have I ever", also known as "I've never..." or "ten fingers", is a drinking game in which players take turns asking other players about things they have not done. Other players who have done this thing respond by taking a drink. A ver ...

'' as a recurring character in season 2.

Personal life

On June 11, 2021, Alvarez publicly came out as gay on social media.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Tyler 1997 births 21st-century American male actors American people of Cuban descent American people of Puerto Rican descent American male film actors American male television actors American male child actors Living people Male actors from New York City American gay actors