Brian Jordan Alvarez: a Homegrown Actor to Watch
Thursday, March 29, 2018
by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer
In 2010, Brian Jordan Alvarez found himself driving back to Los Angeles after visiting his family in Winchester, Tenn. Just out of college, on the drive he listened to an audio book offering career advice to aspiring actors suggesting they find an agent by researching actors they considered to be at the same level. Alvarez zeroed in on actor Paul Dano, only to discover Dano was “a big star represented by Creative Artists Agency.” Alvarez remembers thinking, “I have so far to go. It felt like such a high mountain.”
CAA represents some of the top stars in Hollywood. Today, Alavarez is among them. On April 5, Alvarez will make a guest appearance on the season finale episode of the NBC sitcom “Will and Grace.”
Alvarez grew up in Winchester, attended Broadview Elementary School and later St. Andrew’s-Sewanee, where he played Nicely-Nicely Johnson in “Guys and Dolls” his freshman year. His junior year, he played Benny Southstreet opposite Nicely-Nicely in the University of the South’s production of the play.
Alvarez spent his senior year at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts program for high school students. The intensive drama program paved the way for him to earn a degree in acting at the University of Southern California.
Alvarez has appeared in the TV series “Two Broke Girls,” “The Great Indoors,” “Hot In Cleveland,” and several times in “Jane the Virgin” and “Get Shorty.”
Alvarez wrote, produced, directed, and stars in “The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo,” a widely popular YouTube series that played at the Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a Gotham Award.
A new script, “Doc Holiday,” features a gay group therapist who moves back to Tennessee from LA. The project is ready “to be pitched to the networks,” Alvarez said, but is on hold pending the outcome of another project he’s involved in, “Stupid Idiots.”
Written by his friend Stephani Koenig, “Stupid Idiots” stars Alvarez and Koenig and, like “The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo,” achieved wide popularity on YouTube. Last year performing in Montreal in conjunction with being selected as one of Variety’s “Top Ten Comics to Watch in 2017,” Alvarez played clips from “Stupid Idiots.” The cable channel Comedy Central took an interest in the show and plans to shoot a pilot in the next couple of months.
In the upcoming episode of “Will and Grace,” Alvarez plays Estefan, the new fiancé of lead-character Jack. Alvarez considers it especially fitting that Estefan hails from Spain. Alvarez grew up speaking Spanish with a grandfather from Spain and a mother from Columbia, University of the South Spanish professor Angela Alvarez Jordan.
The two tapings of the final episode in front of a live audience were well received, Alvarez said. “The laughs were real, not laugh tracks,” he pointed out. “That’s what the writers are working for.” Prior to the tapings, the audience viewed a few pre-taped scenes so the story line would make sense.
“It’s cool to get to see yourself,” Alvarez said. “It felt like I woke up from a dream, and they brought back “Will and Grace,” and I got to be in it”—which may be exactly what happens.
Alvarez now has two projects in the stream flow for next season, “Stupid Idiots” and “Will and Grace” with Estefan as a possible regular. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, to see Alvarez in this season’s final episode, tune into NBC Thursday, April 5, at 8 p.m.