After graduating from LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Acevedo enrolled in the SUNY Purchase School of Acting (Purchase College). In the 1990s, Acevedo earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and, as some of his classmates had landed parts shortly after auditioning for Oz, he was also motivated to try out, and subsequently landed the role of the half-crazed gang leader prisoner Miguel Alvarez.
