Страшилы
Alvarado was born in New York City, the daughter of Sylvia, a Puerto Rican flamenco dancer, and Domingo Alvarado, a Spanish-born flamenco singer. As a child, she lived on upper Riverside Drive (Manhattan) on the Upper West Side. She attended the Professional Children's School and studied at Fordham University. Alvarado said in a "People" magazine interview for the movie "Stella": "I lead kind of a quiet life. I just grew up that way." Alvarado more or less stays out of the limelight and is a self-described homebody; she revealed during the promotion for "The Frighteners", "It's just difficult to go away. I was very nervous about having to go to New Zealand for nearly seven months [to make "The Frighteners"]. I was very tragically saying goodbye to everybody."