Alex Alpharaoh

Alex Alpharaoh was born Anner Alexander Alfaro Cividanis in Guatemala City, Guatemala. He was only 3 months old when he arrived to Los Angeles, CA with his then 15 year old mother in 1983. He is the oldest of 4 children and son to Guatemalan Immigrant parents Nery Alfaro and Lucrecia Cividanis. Alex grew up in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and was first introduced to acting by a neighbor who was a freelance cinematographer. Alex showed an interest in the dramatic arts from an early age. He began getting involved in small projects as an extra when he was only 8 years old. His first acting class was when he attended Virgil Middle School in the 8th grade. Alex became a troubled at-risk youth after his parents split up shortly after his 9th birthday. He moved around a lot throughout various communities in Los Angeles including Mid-City, East Los Angeles, Pico-Union, and South Central Los Angeles due to his parents destitute economic circumstances. Despite his personal setbacks and being undocumented at the time, Alex maintained his interest in acting and continued taking acting classes while attending Belmont High School. Shortly before his 16th birthday, Alex's father passed away from undetermined circumstances. This event caused Alex to permanently live with his mother in South Central Los Angeles. It was during this time that Alex met Producer/Writer Mariam Jobrani and Documentary film maker Eugene Shirley. They soon began filming a biographical documentary titled AKA CREEK: Educating A Big City School Boy, a documentary about public education reform that centered around Alex's journey through the public school system in Los Angeles. The documentary aired on PBS 2001 and was used as an educational tool in Colleges and Universities throughout the United States. Alex began his acting training under the tutelage of Mark Majarian while studying at Cypress College in 2006 while living in Anaheim, CA. There, he acquired his foundation of experiential acting by combining various techniques including the Eric Morris system, Meisner, Viewpoints, and Improv. Alex incorporated those techniques into his Spoken Word and Performance Poetry abilities. Alex Has trained at Antaeus Theatre Company, and American Conservatory Theatre as well as trained privately in solo performance by artists such as Danny Hoch, Lemon Andersen, Margaret Medina, and Roger Guenveur Smith. Alex began acting professionally on stage in 2009 when he was cast in Mammoth Gorge, by Mark Glinski at Ensemble Studio Theatre/Los Angeles (EST/LA), that same year, he collaborated with and became a founding member of Urban Theatre Movement when he performed and later became the producing director of SP!T: Spoken Word Theatre. Alex built up SP!T as one of the branches of Urban Theatre Movement from 2009 until 2017 when he left the company. In 2015 he wrote and produced his first spoken word play titled Don't Talk About It, SP!T About It, which premiered at the Hollywood Fringe festival. It was world premiered in the fall of 2016 at Casa0101 Theatre in Boyle Heights, CA. in 2017, Alex wrote his award winning solo show titled WET: A DACAmented Journey, an autobiographical account of his life as a formerly undocumented citizen living in the US during the 45th Administration. WET went on to tour nationally as a collaboration between Cara Mia Theatre, SMU, Arts Emerson, and EST/LA. in 2018 Alex was awarded the 2018 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) award for best solo performance. Alex lives in Los Angeles with his daughter Aileen.