Elvira Carrizal, a Chicana born in El Paso, Texas, was raised in the border town of Chaparral, New Mexico. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in May 2000, where she double-majored in broadcast journalism and Chicano studies and completed a minor in theatre arts. Father's Shadow/Sombra del Padre is the first-place winner of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival S’ TV Playwriting Award and the second-place runner-up of the National Student Playwriting Award. Carrizal received a fellowship from the Kennedy Center to attend the Eugene O'Neill National Playwriting Conference in New London, Connecticut, in the summer of 2000. Among other awards, Carrizal received an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her work on a collaborative documentary production.
