Valley guy shared scene with strippers, Doogie Howser

HOMETOWN HOLLYWOOD Mando Alvarado

Age: 35

Hometown: Pharr - San Juan

Where you live now: Brooklyn, 4 years

Job: Playwright/Actor

Current projects: Is developing a play for Rattlestick Theater in New York, developing his second screenplay, has been commissioned to write a one-act play for a festival in November and just finished shoot a commercial for Travelers Insurance in Vancouver, Canada. He is also co-creator of  Those Guys and That Girl Films.

Past projects: Has appeared in all three "Law and Order" series and on "The Sopranos." He also presented his play "Throat" in McAllen at Cine El Rey in November 2006 and is in post-production with a film, "Meme," which he hopes to screen in the Valley in late fall.

People in your field whom you admire and draw inspiration from: Stephen Adly Guirgis, Eduardo Machado, Raul Castillo (from McAllen), Philip Seymour Hoffman and the Coen Brothers

Odd beginnings: Alvarado left the Valley for San Antonio after graduating in 1991. He first majored in architecture, but says the career didn't suit his "uninhibited demeanor." In 1997, he began pursuing a career in acting at the North Carolina School for the Arts, a move that eventually landed him in New York.

Hometown ties: Last year, Alvarado moved back to San Juan for three months to film a movie with help from the city's Economic Development Corporation. But during his longest visit since leaving in 1991, he says he noticed massive change, like "more businesses, bigger houses, bigger cars, more of a chance for an affluent society." "It made me realize that nothing stays the same," he said. "And even though I love that the Valley is growing, I miss the innocence of my idea of what the Valley was to me growing up. But the people are wonderful, giving and very loving. That hasn't changed."

I always wish I had directed ..."Goodfellas!" Or "Casino," "Rocky" or "Braveheart." 

I would eat garbage to work with ... For actors: Philip Seymour Hoffman or Sean Penn. Directors: the Coen Brothers or Paul Thomas Anderson

Three favorite films of all time: "Braveheart" "Usual Suspects" "Forrest Gump"

Behind the scenes: On "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," Alvarado played a South American businessman that spent over $150,000 on strippers. It was his very first TV gig. Come call time, they take him to a strip club to film. It was an interesting introduction to television world. To add to the situation, he was sharing the scene with Doogie Howser himself, Neil Patrick Harris. Before he could even register who he was sharing a scene with, they yelled ‘Action!' "All of a sudden these three strippers come out from the back and start dancing all over me. I felt really awkward and weird," he remembers. "Was I supposed to tip them? So I slipped a 5 dollar bill in one of the girl's G-String, but then they said cut and I'm sitting there, stunned. And one of the girls says, ‘It's okay, baby. It's just TV.' "