8th-grader stars in award-winning film

Holmes Middle School eighth-grader Shannon Urban may have found a short road to stardom. She stars in the Denver-produced short musical film "Quillions," which recently won the 48 Hour Film Project/Panasonic Filmmaker Showdown, part of Filmapalooza at the Miami International Film Festival.

Urban plays a child who's kidnapped and held for ransom after her father steals a rare historic item. She acts, sings and dances in the five-minute short.

She talked to us after school, in between a voice-over gig and a singing lesson.

"I feel pretty honored and lucky," she said. "It's not every day that kids are in films that win awards in Miami. I feel privileged to be able to do this.

"I'm working my way up to being in movie and television and records ... I want to do it all," she said. "Someday I'd like to be on Broadway."

She's taken a few short steps on the way. "Quillions" is the third short in which she's starred. She also recently secured her first paying gig: a public service announcement urging high school students not to lie.

"So, she's official now," said her father, Ryan Urban.

Another sign of her legitimacy: thanks to "Quillions," she's on the definitive movie Web site imdb.com.

Ryan Urban, once a disc jockey and now an HMO executive, wouldn't have chosen a career in show business for his daughter.

"I could have come up with a few hundred careers for her, but this has always been a foregone conclusion for her."

Click here to see the film.