Ivelise was born to Auriella Quijada and Javier Santoro on July 3rd, 1985, the youngest and only girl of her mother's children. She has two older brothers Dominic (32) and Beau (28) who share the same father and several siblings from her biological father that she has never met, nor has she shown any interest in knowing them. When she was four, her mother remarried Def Jam Records founder and current CEO of Warner Music Group Michael DiMotta and they relocated to Southampton, New York with him and his five year old daughter Adriana, daughter of a traveling supermodel. Through her relationship, Auriella worked her way up the ranks to from stylist for various magazines under Conde Nast to become the creative director for US Vogue. 

As a child Ivelise was a soft spoken and polite, while her step sister was the complete opposite and almost constantly tried to wind her up and get her into any kind of trouble, which continued through high school.  In 2003 they participated in the filming of the critically acclaimed documentary "Born Rich", a look into the lives of children born into the wealthiest families in the world. Although she was an exception to the base rule of the documentary, her story of transitioning into wealth from a young age and dealing with silent prejudices against her family in their Southampton neighborhood was one of the most talked about segments in the film. It was at this time that the media became interested in keeping tabs on all things happening in her life.
 

Her first year in college was more of a party than a focus on studies, and her reputation as a party girl developed. She attended almost every new night club opening and several fashion and music industry events initially as a guest of her parents, but was eventually tagged the new “it” girl of the NY and LA social scenes and those invites started to roll in under her own name. With all of the recognition for essentially looking good while doing absolutely nothing, came consequence. She began drinking daily to the point of blackouts and was rumored to be regularly using cocaine in her second semester of school.

While in Los Angeles she was convinced to go on auditions for whatever available productions were casting. It was then that she got the call that she landed the role of Kara in Brick. While it wasn't a complete box office hit, it brought enough attention to keep her in the limelight for being more than just a "rich girl", and more important for her - it brought in her own money to support her growing habit. It went unnoticed for some time, and she seemed functional even with her grades declining which was often blamed on filming, auditions and whatever public events she was attending. 

An accidental pregnancy and miscarriage sent her on a downward spiral that landed her in a drug rehabilitation center in Maine for six months. It was highly publicized as no one - including her parents saw this turn of events coming. If anything it was more expected of her step-sister who had opted out of college to follow her mother's footsteps in becoming a model. With her health and stability sorted out to a degree, Ivelise returned to Los Angeles but not with a focus on school. While she had been back and forth to New York for various internships, mainly one in production with MTV’s various studio shows and was eventually offered a job as a content editor for MTV News, she wanted to act.  Her family thought it was in her best interest to lay low and stay out of the limelight while her life was gradually coming back together, but with already having that taste of fame and recognition she had more of an interest in being in the news instead of writing about it.