Mapleton native's band may be 'next big thing'

PROVO — Two weeks ago, as far as Jared Murillo was concerned, teen magazines fell into the same category as curling irons and fingernail polish — mysterious "girl things" that he didn't touch and didn't try to understand.

Reading his first issue of CosmoGirl!, the 19-year-old Mapleton native said, was "really, really strange." But, surprisingly, he didn't feel weird because he saw his own face peering out at him from the glossy pages, and because the article suggested that, as a member of Warner Brothers Records' newest boy band, V Factory, Murillo might be the next big thing in entertainment.

"I just never thought I would read CosmoGirl!," he said, during a phone interview from Hollywood last week. "It was just something my sisters had lying around their rooms. I never picked one up."

Of course, Murillo never thought he'd be selling his music on iTunes, dodging the paparazzi or doing interviews with Rolling Stone Magazine, either. As for dating "High School Musical" star Ashley Tisdale, that isn't something normal Utah teenagers exactly plan on.

"It's a little unreal," Murillo said, of his abrupt transformation from Utah Valley State College freshman to pop star hopeful.

A scout spotted him dancing last year at a rehearsal for the "High School Musical" national tour, for which he was a featured dancer and assistant choreographer. He and group mates Asher Book, Wesley Quinn, Nick Teti and Nathaniel Flatt, signed a contract with Warner Brothers Records just a few months later.

It wasn't, though, a big break that came without preparation.

Murillo, who holds several national ballroom dance titles, has been singing and dancing at Orem's Center Stage Performing Arts Studio almost daily since he was 6 years old. His parents, who own the studio, are open about how much time and money they've poured into training Murillo, sometimes flying instructors in from overseas to work with their son.

"We really believed he would make it big," said Alex Murillo, Jared's father. "We saw early on in his life that he was an entertainer. He is focused and very ambitious. When Jared wants something, he gets it done."

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