Daily Skiff

Issue date: 4/5/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Twentieth Century Fox Arthur (J. Mack Slaughter Jr. right) confronts Fat Albert (Kenan Thompson) on the track. Observing in the background are (from left) Mushmouth (Jermaine Williams), Dumb Donald (Marques B. Houston), Rudy (Shedrack Anderson III), Lauri (Dania Ramirez), Old Weird Harold (Aaron A. Frazier), Doris (Kyla Pratt) and Bucky (Alphonso McAuley). Slaughter moved to Los Angeles on his own when he was 17 years old after a two-year stint with a boy band named "Sons of Harmony."

He slaves over periodic tables and biology notes. He doesn't sleep the night before an organic chemistry exam. In the little spare time he does have, he gives guitar lessons.

Oh yeah, and he's wooed actress Amanda Bynes' character on the CW sitcom "What I like About You".

J. Mack Slaughter Jr. is a 23-year-old sophomore neuroscience major whose journey to TCU has involved traveling across Texas in a family singing group, singing in a boy band and acting on television and movie sets in Los Angeles.

A Fort Worth native, Slaughter moved to Los Angeles on his own when he was 17 years old after a two-year stint in a local boy band, Sons of Harmony. The five-member group, which included "American Idol" contestant Brandon Rogers, toured across Texas and opened concerts with musicians such as Destiny's Child, Jessica Simpson and Bon Jovi.

Slaughter intended to stay in Los Angeles for only two months and then return to Fort Worth to finish his senior year of high school at Fort Worth Country Day School. But he ended up staying because a reality television show offer fell through. He spent his senior year in Los Angeles faxing homework back to his teachers in Fort Worth. His two older sisters, both aspiring actresses, went to live with Slaughter after they were offered roles on a pilot television show.

"Most kids have college as a transition after high school," Slaughter said. "I had five months with my sisters."

Continued...

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