For the Spanish diver, see Rafael Álvarez

Rafael Álvarez

Rafael Álvarez Serrano is a retired male diver from Spain, best known for winning the bronze medals at the 1997 European Championships in Seville, Spain and at the World University Games in 1999. He represented his native country in four consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1988...

Rafael Alvarez (born May 24, 1958) is an American journalist, author and television producer and writer. Alvarez worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun prior to starting a career in television. He has worked as a writer and story editor on the Home Box Office

Home Box Office

HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...

 drama series The Wire

The WIRE

the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...

and a writer and producer on the crime dramas Life and The Black Donnellys

The Black Donnellys

The Black Donnellys is an American television drama that debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and last aired on April 2, 2007. Thereafter, NBC began releasing new episodes weekly on until the series was officially canceled. The Black Donnellys was created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco...

. He has written several books including a guide to The Wire, a non-fiction guide to the archdiocese in Baltimore, a short-fiction anthology and two collections of his journalism.

Biography

Alvarez was born at St. Agnes Hospital

St. Agnes Hospital (Baltimore)

St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland is a full service teaching hospital located at 900 S. Caton Avenue.It is licensed and accredited with a Gold Seal of Approval from the JCAHO, is designated as an American Society for Bariatric Surgery Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence and is a Level...

 in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

. He was raised in suburban Linthicum

Linthicum, Maryland

Linthicum is a census-designated place and an unincorporated community in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 7,539 at the 2000 census. It is the approximate location of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport...

, and graduated in 1976 from Mount Saint Joseph College

Mount Saint Joseph College

Mount Saint Joseph High School, is a private, Catholic high school located in Baltimore, Maryland in the community of Irvington. The campus consists of four academic buildings, an athletic field house, and housing for the school's chaplains. It was founded by the Xaverian Brothers in November 1876...

 (High School). He moved into the city while attending Loyola College, bought a home on North Ellwood Avenue in East Baltimore in 1980, and moved into his paternal grandparents' house in Greektown in 1989. He began his journalism career in 1977 working as a truck dispatcher for the Baltimore Sun and then doing the box scores for the sports desk. In 1981, he transferred to the city desk and learned to cover the police beat. Alvarez worked as a city desk reporter for the Baltimore Sun for twenty years The Sun has published two anthologies of his journalism entitled Hometown Boy (1999) and Storyteller (2001). In 2008, from January to April, he wrote a weekly column for The Baltimore Examiner.

Alvarez also writes fiction and has had two collections of short fiction published; "The Fountain of Highlandtown" (1997) and "Orlo and Leini" (2001). The former includes the autobiographical short story "The Fountain of Highlandtown" which won the Baltimore City's Artscape Award for the short story. Alvarez is at work on another short story collection called Sea Stories. He credits his time as a journalist with providing him with a wealth of information to use in his fiction. He has also published the non-fiction anniversary book,First and Forever: The Archdiocese of Baltimore, A People's History. He contributed three short stories to the collection Out of Tune (2006). The project also includes stories by Alvarez's daughter Sofia, Baltimore musician Jason Tinney, Rosalia Scalia and Airin Miller.

In 2001, Alvarez left the Baltimore Sun and joined the Seafarers International Union with the intention of working on ships. He has since worked as a writer/producer on several television shows. Alvarez first worked in television as a freelance screenwriter on Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

contributing the teleplay for the sixth season episode "All is Bright". The show was based on a book by his former Sun colleague David Simon who was working as a producer on the sixth season in 1997 when Alvarez was hired.

Alvarez worked with Simon again as a writer on The Wire

The Wire (TV series)

The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...

. He was credited as a staff writer for the second season. He contributed a teleplay for an episode in each of the first three seasons including "One Arrest", "Backwash

Backwash (The Wire episode)

"Backwash" is the seventh episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Rafael Alvarez from a story by David Simon & Rafael Alvarez and was directed by Thomas J. Wright...

" and "Homecoming

Homecoming (The Wire episode)

"Homecoming" is the sixth episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Rafael Alvarez from a story by David Simon & Rafael Alvarez and was directed by Leslie Libman...

". Alvarez also wrote a guide book on the series called The Wire: Truth be Told. Simon credits Alvarez with bringing a wealth of experience to their depiction of the Baltimore port in the show's second season. Alvarez described The Wire as similar to a Russian novel in that "the reader does the work for the first hundred pages, and then it turns and you’re lost in it[.] With The Wire, it might be Episode 6 before it turns and you’re in.”

He left The Wire's writing staff after the show's third season. He now splits his time between Baltimore and Los Angeles. He worked as a writer and consulting producer for the gambling drama Tilt

Tilt (TV series)

Tilt is a U.S. TV series set against the backdrop of the World Championship of Poker tournament in Las Vegas, and with the tagline "You're playing poker. They're playing you." The series first aired on January 13, 2005, and is the second original drama series from ESPN, following Playmakers...

in 2005. He wrote the episode "Nobody Ever Listens". The series was cancelled while airing its first season. He worked as a staff writer and producer on Andre Braugher

Andre Braugher

Andre Braugher is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Thomas Searles in the film Glory, as the fiery detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street from 1993 to 1998 and again in the 2000 made-for-TV film Homicide: Life on the Street, and as Owen Thoreau Jr...

's FX cable mini-series, Thief

Thief (TV series)

Thief is an FX television mini-series which debuted on March 28, 2006 .Andre Braugher stars as Nick Atwater, the leader of a robbery crew balancing his personal life with the planning of a major heist...

in 2006. He worked on Paul Haggis' NBC drama The Black Donnellys

The Black Donnellys

The Black Donnellys is an American television drama that debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and last aired on April 2, 2007. Thereafter, NBC began releasing new episodes weekly on until the series was officially canceled. The Black Donnellys was created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco...

in 2007. He was credited as a producer and wrote the episode "The Only Sure Thing". The series aired as a mid-season replacement and was cancelled after thirteen episodes.

Alvarez also wrote a pilot called Panic in Detroit for NBC. Based on this piece, they hired him to work on Life as a writer and producer. Alvarez co-wrote the episode "A Civil War" with series creator and show runner Rand Ravich

Rand Ravich

Rand Ravich is a film and television director, writer, and producer. He wrote and directed the 1999 science fiction thriller The Astronaut's Wife starring Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron, which was nominated for the Best Film category at the 1999 Catalonian International Film Festival...

. He left the crew of Life after the first season.

Filmography

Writer

Year	Show	Episode	Notes
2007	Life	"A Civil War"	Season 1, episode 7 With Rand Ravich Rand Ravich Rand Ravich is a film and television director, writer, and producer. He wrote and directed the 1999 science fiction thriller The Astronaut's Wife starring Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron, which was nominated for the Best Film category at the 1999 Catalonian International Film Festival...
	The Black Donnellys The Black Donnellys The Black Donnellys is an American television drama that debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and last aired on April 2, 2007. Thereafter, NBC began releasing new episodes weekly on until the series was officially canceled. The Black Donnellys was created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco...	"The Only Thing Sure"	Season 1, episode 6 With Mick Betancourt
2006	Thief Thief (TV series) Thief is an FX television mini-series which debuted on March 28, 2006 .Andre Braugher stars as Nick Atwater, the leader of a robbery crew balancing his personal life with the planning of a major heist...	"No Direction Home"	Episode 4
2005	Tilt Tilt (TV series) Tilt is a U.S. TV series set against the backdrop of the World Championship of Poker tournament in Las Vegas, and with the tagline "You're playing poker. They're playing you." The series first aired on January 13, 2005, and is the second original drama series from ESPN, following Playmakers...	"Nobody Ever Listens"	Season 1, episode 8
2004	The Wire The WIRE the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...	"Homecoming"	Season 3, episode 6 Story co-written with David Simon David Simon David Simon is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood with Ed Burns... , teleplay by Alvarez
2003		"Backwash"	Season 2, episode 7 Story co-written with David Simon, teleplay by Alvarez
2002		"One Arrest"	Season 1, episode 7 Teleplay by Alvarez from a story by David Simon and Ed Burns Ed Burns Ed Burns is a producer, screenwriter, and novelist. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. They have collaborated on The Corner and The Wire . Burns is a former Baltimore police detective for the Homicide and Narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher...
1997	Homicide: Life on the Street Homicide: Life on the Street Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...	"All Is Bright"	Season 6, episode 8 Teleplay by Alvarez from a story by James Yoshimura James Yoshimura James Yoshimura is a Japanese American writer and producer, best known for his screenwriting work on the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street and the short-lived Fox series The Jury, for which he served as a co-creator. He also co-wrote Homicide: The Movie, a made-for-television film that came...  and Julie Martin Julie Martin (writer) Julie Martin is an American television writer and producer. She has worked on the NBC crime dramas Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She won a Humanitas Prize and was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for her work on Homicide...

Producer

Year	Show	Role	Notes
2007	Life	Producer and writer	Season 1
	The Black Donnellys The Black Donnellys The Black Donnellys is an American television drama that debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and last aired on April 2, 2007. Thereafter, NBC began releasing new episodes weekly on until the series was officially canceled. The Black Donnellys was created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco...	Producer and writer	Season 1
2006	Thief Thief (TV series) Thief is an FX television mini-series which debuted on March 28, 2006 .Andre Braugher stars as Nick Atwater, the leader of a robbery crew balancing his personal life with the planning of a major heist...	Producer	Mini-series
2005	Tilt Tilt (TV series) Tilt is a U.S. TV series set against the backdrop of the World Championship of Poker tournament in Las Vegas, and with the tagline "You're playing poker. They're playing you." The series first aired on January 13, 2005, and is the second original drama series from ESPN, following Playmakers...	Consulting producer and writer	Season 1
2004	The Wire The WIRE the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...	Story editor and writer	Season 3
2003		Staff writer	Season 2