Experiencing her first brush with writing during her formative years in elementary school handwriting a novel in her tattered old notebook and passed around from one classmate to another, Tyra Alvarade has been practicing the craft of storytelling from even the days before she considered it a viable profession to pursue.

As a graduate of De La Salle University - Manila under AB Communication Arts back in 2017, Tyra was awarded the Outstanding Thesis Award for her short film Art Fines, which she wrote and directed. She worked as an Associate Producer under Sine De Oro Productions and Reality Entertainment, aiding in the production of films and TV episodes such as On the Job: The Missing 8, Kuwaresma (The Entity), and HBO’s Food Lore: Island of Dreams, before branching out to pursue full-time screenwriting, and later, directing.

Her directorial debut Ang Kwento ni Maria, Maria, at Lucia (Between One Lucia and Two Marias), a dramedy centered on three generations of women’s journey to tenderness amidst wounds left by intergenerational trauma, was a participant of Full Circle Lab 2022 under the mentorship of renowned filmmakers Ayman El Amir and Meiske Taurisia. The film is also currently a recipient of the Film Development Council of the Philippines’s CreatePHFilms 2022 Script Development Fund, and was part of the roster of projects shortlisted for Sundance Script Development Lab and the IFFR Hubert Bals Script & Project Development Fund last 2022. Alongside this, Tyra is concurrently developing Si Maria’t Si Lucia (Maria & Lucia), a short film serving as both a precursor and microcosm of Ang Kwento ni Maria, Maria, at Lucia’s core themes and narrative, and was mentored under Erik Matti during the Globe VH Film Lab; she intends to enter it in several local and international festivals and aid as the feature film’s proof of concept.

Tyra is interested in the exploration of familial trauma, nationality, and female identity, and how they all coincide and overlap within an individual’s life.

Her greatest inspiration is her mother.