Rivera was born at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, New York, the son of Lillian (née Friedman; October 16, 1924 – June 3, 2018) and Cruz "Allen" Rivera (October 1, 1915 – November 1987), a restaurant worker and cab driver respectively.[3][4] Rivera is a Stateside Puerto Rican; his father was a Puerto Rican Catholic,[5] and his mother was of Russian Jewish descent. He was raised "mostly Jewish" and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony