BLOCKBUSTER’S TYLER SAGE ALVAREZ

No, you’re not imagining it – you’ve definitely seen the video-store guy in Blockbuster before.

TYLER SAGE ALVAREZ (25), one of the stars of the new Netflix series, also starred in Nickelodeon’s Every Witch Way and Netflix’s Never Have I Ever.

In Blockbuster he plays Carlos Herrera, an immigrant teen with big plans.

THE MOVIE-MAD DREAMER

Tyler says the Blockbuster team will become viewers’ “new favourite employees of the month”.

“I love all the amazing and talented people involved in making this show and I can’t wait for everyone to see it.”

Carlos’ parents are recent immigrants to America. He taught himself to speak English by watching movies – and he dreams of becoming a filmmaker.

For now, he has to earn his cash working in Timmy Yoon’s (Randall Park from Young Rock) Blockbuster video store. What’s a video store, Granddad? It’s a place where you could rent video cassette or DVD copies of movies to watch at home.

The Blockbuster video store franchise, like many other movie rental shops, were once commonplace in suburbs around the world.

When Timmy realises that his Blockbuster is the last one in America, he and his team pull out all the stops to keep their doors open in the new digital age.

IMMIGRANT CHILD

Tyler was born in New York, but his father is of Cuban origin, and his mother has roots in Puerto Rico.

He had an older brother, Niko, who died in October 2018.

Saying goodbye to his brother was the hardest thing he’s done, he said.

“You are, and always will be, my best friend and big brother. I love you with all my heart. Rest in peace, my angel. Your little brother will hold the fort,” were his parting words to Niko.

Tyler’s parents divorced when he was a child and both remarried. He has two younger half-sisters, Alex and Brianna, from his father, and a younger half-sister, Sofia, on his mother’s side.

HARD WORKER

He got his can-do attitude from his parents. “My mother always instilled in me that if you want something, you have to do it. And that’s kind of the way I live, because I have this burning dream and I’m going to do everything in my power to make it come true.

“I’ve been like this since I was literally 12 years old. I found my own agents, got my own classes and got a train there myself.”