David Alvarez

David Alvarez, born David Alvarez-Gonzalez on May 11, 1994, in Montreal, Quebec, is a Canadian dancer and actor whose Broadway career spans 2008 to 2014. His parents are of Cuban origin; his father, David Alvarez-Carbonell, is a professor of biology and chemistry, and his mother, Yanek Gonzalez, is an actress and theater director. French and Spanish were his first languages. The family later relocated to San Diego, California, when his father accepted a position at The Scripps Research Institute, and subsequently moved again to New York City.

Alvarez's formal dance training began in earnest at the California Ballet before he received a full merit scholarship in 2005 to the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre. During his years at ABT, he performed featured roles in The Nutcracker at the Kennedy Center Opera House and The Sleeping Beauty at the Metropolitan Opera House, continuing his ballet training there through 2012. He also studied classical piano at the 92nd Street Y School of Music, where he was awarded the Recanati-Kaplan merit scholarship.

His Broadway debut came with Billy Elliot: The Musical, for which he spent the period from July 2007 through March 2008 preparing by studying tap, acrobatics, voice, and acting. He was one of three boys originally cast in the title role alongside Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish. The production began performances on October 1, 2008, with Alvarez's first preview on October 2. He played his final performance as Billy on January 3, 2010. Critics including Ben Brantley and Claudia La Rocco of The New York Times and Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times praised his portrayal. The production received 15 Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, and won ten. Jointly with Kowalik and Kulish, Alvarez won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2009, making him one of the youngest recipients of that honor. He also received a Theatre World Award that same year. His appearances in connection with the show included Live with Regis and Kelly, The View, Sunday Morning on CBS News, The Today Show, Canada AM on CTV, CBC News, Despierta America on Univision, and the 62nd Tony Awards ceremony. In 2008, Dance Spirit magazine listed him among the top ten young ballet dancers to watch.

Following his run in Billy Elliot, Alvarez left the theater to serve in the United States Army. After approximately two and a half years with the 25th Infantry Division, he returned to Broadway as a swing in a 2015 production of On the Town. In 2016 in Mexico, he danced the role of adult Billy in the dream ballet pas de deux between Billy and his older self, and from February 10 to June 11, 2017, he played the role of Older Billy in Billy Elliot: El Musical, a Spanish-language production staged in Mexico City.

While attending Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2018, Alvarez auditioned for Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of West Side Story, released in 2021, in which he plays the role of Bernardo. Since 2021, he has portrayed Isaac English in the Showtime television series American Rust.