LEWISTON — A frightened Elijah Solis appeared on the screen in a prerecorded video urgently telling Thomas Magnum, “If you’re watching this now, I’m hiring you to solve my murder.”

The 23-year-old Lewiston native made his TV debut two weeks ago, both poisoned and killed in a car crash on an episode of “Magnum P.I.”

It was pretty epic, and on Friday, pretty inspiring.

Solis returned to Lewiston High School to speak to students in the Jobs for Maine’s Graduates program about his unexpected path – a failed Disney theme park audition, four years in the Marines, discovered by a Disney Channel star during a night out with friends – and what the future could hold.

He’d been part of the JMG program for all four years in high school.

“His story is awesome,” said Michelle Bourne, his former teacher. “He followed his dream, not on a straight path.”

Solis graduated from Lewiston High in 2014 planning to study American Sign Language in college in Florida and hoping to get hired to play Aladdin at the Disney World theme park. He’d been Lumiere in a “Beauty and the Beast” production sophomore year and loved acting.

“That didn’t happen whatsoever,” Solis said. “Two months in and I flew right back here. My plan A didn’t work at all and I had no plan B.”

His mother had served in the Air Force and strongly suggested the military. He enlisted in the Marines, and after boot camp at Parris Island – “I’ve never been so miserable in my entire life” – was stationed in Hawaii.

Solis called his four years with the Marines life-changing, and still a point of pride, but after two deployments and two severe shoulder injuries, he knew it wasn’t going to be a career.

“I didn’t know what to do and I was scared again,” he said. “I had this sure thing and I loved doing it, but I’m breaking my body.”

Then he had a fateful night out.

Solis said he was celebrating his 21st birthday with friends at a Hawaiian hotel, “making them laugh because I was being me, because I was the class clown in high school, and this guy comes up to me, ‘Hey, I overheard you talking, you’re really funny.’ I was like, ‘OK, thank you.'”

After a few more questions, the man introduced himself as Adrian R’Mante, who played Esteban on “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.”

“My childhood comedy man crush, I was freaking out, it was so surreal,” Solis said. “He was like, ‘I want you to join my program.’ I was like, ‘I’ll do whatever you want me to, I have nothing going on.’ ”

R’Mante is part of The Celebrity Experience, an acting and behind-the-scenes boot camp that culminates in an audition in front of talent agents, managers and casting directors.

The actor covered his costs, Solis said, and after the audition, Solis got eight callbacks from people wanting to see more.

“Adrian came up to me after and he’s like, ‘I knew it, I knew I saw something in you,’ ” Solis said.

His first audition back in Hawaii, he told the students, didn’t go so well. He psyched himself knowing out that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had once auditioned before the same woman.

“I went in there and I absolutely blew it,” Solis said. “It was embarrassing, actually, but she was such a sweetheart with me.”

His third audition was for the ‘I’m hiring you to solve my murder’ Larry Hayes on “Magnum P.I.”

“I guess I looked like a Larry Hayes to her,” Solis said.

He said he recently returned from an audition in Dubai for a music talent show still in development and has an audition coming up with “Hawaii Five-O.”

He now splits his time between Hawaii and Los Angeles. A current dream project is to get on the CW’s “Riverdale.”

“I literally never thought I’d be in this situation,” Solis said. “Nothing was planned. I cannot stress enough – so many people say, ‘You’re from Lewiston, Maine, what are you going to do, man? You’re not going anywhere.’ They embed that into your head. You can’t live under that either. You guys are from Lewiston, Maine, but so am I.”

He told students that they were learning about real life skills in JMG classes and encouraged them to keep striving.

When he finished, Bourne asked the class to write down what they wanted to be when they grew up. Around the room, there was chef, entrepreneur, professional soccer player and “I don’t know.” Solis wrote down “actor.”

Kathryn Skelton can be contacted at:

kskelton@sunjournal.com