He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the fourth of seven children to Alex and Robin Murillo. At age 5, he began to sing in church. He sang so loud that his teacher told his parents that "someday Jared will be in show business!" The next year, he started taking dance lessons. By the time he was 8, he performed with Donny Osmond, in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat production. He was the youngest cast member of the show. After a 4-month run, it was over and he cried, because he had so much fun and he didn't want it to be over. Three years later, at age 11, he was chosen to perform at the famous Suzuka Race Curcuit in Nagoya, Japan. He sang and danced his way through all the excitement and thrills of speed racing.
At this time in his life, he wanted to seriously compete in ballroom dancing and become a national champion. His parents arranged to bring world-class instructors to teach him and his partner to compete. He soon achieved success on the dance floor and started to win at various events around the country. This caught the eye and the attention of world-class coach and choreographer, Buddy Schwimmer. He approached him and his parents to see if he could dance with his daughter, Lacey, in latin ballroom and west coast swing. This would require him to move and live with them. At age 14, he went to live for three years in Southern California. They shared their love with him and treated him like their own son, Benji. With Buddy and Laurie Schwimmer's continued teaching and coaching, he quickly produced winning results against the finest dance couples in the United States.
He achieved his goal of winning world and national titles when he captured with his partner, the World Swing, United States Swing and the United States Youth Latin Ballroom Championships and the AAU National DanceSport Championships. He was able to compete in Europe and many parts of the US.
In 2002 the Winter Olympics came to Salt Lake City. His brother Joshua and his sister Alexandria and he performed as part of the Opening Ceremonies. It was there he met Kenny Ortega who choreographed the show. Not realizing at the time, just three years later they would meet up again as a principle dancer in Disney's High School Musical production. It was shortly thereafter he auditioned for the concert tour.
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