Boneta Lands Recording Contract with Sony Music U.S. Latin

Diego Boneta is ready to make sweet music in America…

The 23-year-old Mexican actor and singer, who has made a name for himself in television and film, has landed a recording deal Sony Music U.S. Latin.

Diego Boneta

Boneta, best known for portraying Rocco on the Mexican telenovela Rebelde, is a rising star in Hollywood who has become a fixture on U.S. television with roles on MTV’s Underemployed, CW‘s 90210 and ABC Family‘s Pretty Little Liars. He’s also starred in several films, most notably the film adaptation of the Broadway hit musical Rock of Ages, where he starred as Drew Boley and performed nine tracks on the film’s acclaimed soundtrack.

Now, Boneta is hoping to advance his musical career further with his newly inked record deal with Sony Music U.S. Latin. The label plans to release material in both English and Spanish, beginning with an EP that could come out in early 2015.

“Diego is a brand and music is an integral part of his artistic identity,” says Sony Music U.S. Latin president Nir Seroussi, who plans to find Boneta opportunities in multiple media, including opportunities for Boneta’s music in the many films he acts in.

His upcoming projects include the horror flick Summer Camp and Pelé, the biopic about the legendary Brazilian soccer player, in which Boneta plays archrival Pedro alongside Vincent D’onofrio and Rodrigo Santoro.

“The idea is not to simply release an album but create a strategy that’s congruent with my career,” Boneta said in an exclusive interview with Billboard. However, Boneta points out, “Diego the actor and Diego the singer are managed completely separate from one another.”

Boneta actually started out as a singer, taking voice lessons when he was only 8 years old and becoming a finalist on music reality show Codigo F.A.M.A. when he was 12. At 15, Boneta landed his star-making role on the popular soap opera Rebelde and went on to release two successful solo albums with EMI.

By 2010, at 20 years old, Boneta was already making a mark in Hollywood with his roles in Pretty Little Liars and 90210, plus a role in Mean Girls 2. He was signed briefly to Adam Levine‘s label but finally went to Sony, where he’ll work in both languages and across many mediums.

Now, Boneta is writing new tracks even as he prepares to begin shooting the miniseries The Dovekeepers, from Roma Downey and Mark Burnett (The Bible).

The trick to the balancing act, he says, is “finding the time. I’d like to be doing what Justin Timberlake does.”

Walsh Cast in Amazon’s “Zombieland” Pilot

Maiara Walsh will be fending off the walking dead

The 24-year-old half-Brazilian actress has landed one of the leading roles in Amazon’s comedic television adaptation of the 2009 hit film Zombieland.

Maiara Walsh

The comedy continues the events of the feature, with new actors taking over the roles of Columbus, Tallahassee and Wichita, previously played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Emma Stone, respectively, in the 2009 Ruben Fleischer feature.

Walsh, who has most recently appeared on ABC Family’s Switched at Birth, will play Wichita, a natural con-woman and tough girl who with her younger sister Little Rock (Izabela Vidovic) teams up with Columbus (Tyler Ross) to survive the zombie apocalypse and search for survivors.

Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick will write the script for Sony Pictures Television, which is producing the pilot for Amazon.

Walsh previously played Eva Longoria‘s niece, Ana, on ABC‘s Desperate Housewives. She also appeared on the CW‘s The Vampire Diaries and the TV movie Mean Girls 2.