Brandon Alvis (born June 22, 1987) is an American paranormal investigator, filmmaker, author, and television personality. Alvis is the producer, director, and lead investigator for the television series Haunted Discoveries, which began airing on Canada's T+E network in 2023.[2] Before that, he was a co-investigator and paranormal technician on the A&EGhost Hunters reboot from 2019 to 2021.[3]
Early life
Brandon Alvis was born in Bakersfield, California, on June 22, 1987.[4] Even from an early age, he was drawn to ghosts and hauntings. "I can remember reading anything I could get my hands on that was related to ghost stories and encounters of a haunting. I was the type of kid that would walk by the local haunted house hoping to get a glimpse of said apparitions."[5]
However, beginning in 1995, his interest in the paranormal changed following the death of one of his brothers to cancer and another to suicide in 2004.[6]
"I began reading everything I could about ghosts and hauntings," Alvis says in his book Elements of a Haunting. "I wanted to make sure I had proper understanding and knowledge of the subject prior to stepping out to conduct field research."[7]
As his interest in the paranormal grew, Alvis formed the American Paranormal Research Association (APRA). With APRA, Alvis claims to have investigated over 200 allegedly haunted locations, many of them historic locations.[9]
In 2017, Alvis produced a limited series on YouTube called Ephemera that explored the forgotten history of California.[10] Then in 2019, he premiered a one-hour documentary Cemetery Park, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.[11]Cemetery Park criticizes the City of Ventura's decision to flatten one of the city's oldest cemeteries to create a dog park.[12]
In 2019, Brandon Alvis became the tech specialist for a new incarnation of Ghost Hunters (TV series) that aired on A&E from 2019 to 2021. After the series ended, Alvis and Ghost Hunters co-investigator Mustafa Gatollari wrote Elements of a Haunting: Connecting History with Science to Uncover the Greatest Ghost Stories Ever Told, published by Llewelyn Press in 2022.
Haunted Discoveries
Following the release of their book, Alvis and Gatollari formed A & G Creative. They also partnered with Stargazer Television, and began production on Haunted Discoveries (2023), a paranormal docu-series that explores haunted historic landmarks in and around Kentucky.[13]
The first season aired on T+E network during "Creep Week" in October 2023.[14]
Alvis told Collider, "Bringing our research to Kentucky, a place that many consider to be the most haunted state in America, has been a paranormal investigator's dream."[15]
He says that Haunted Discoveries uses a more scientific and history-based methodology that makes it unique to the television genre. "With many shows, there is a specific formula that is always adhered to, oftentimes for the sake of legitimate paranormal research. Haunted Discoveries proves that science can be scary, and is a pure documentary where history and methodology take precedence over manufactured jump scares and blinking lights."[16]
^Alvis, Brandon; Gatollari, Mustafa (January 8, 2022). Elements of a Haunting: Connecting History with Science to Uncover the Greatest Ghost Stories Ever Told, p. 5. New York: Llewellyn Publications. ISBN978-0738768229.
^Elements of a Haunting (Alvis and Gatolarri), pp. 5-8.
^Elements of a Haunting (Alvis and Gatolarri), p. 8.
^Elements of a Haunting (Alvis and Gatolarri), p. 8.
