Summary
- Frankie Muniz's acting career took off in the 2000s with roles in popular TV shows and films.
- Since the 2010s, Muniz's projects have been smaller in scale, focusing on animated movies and TV appearances.
- Muniz is set to make a comeback in upcoming films and has pursued other interests like racing and music.
Frankie Muniz was one of the most popular child and teen actors in the 2000s, but what happened to him after a successful run on TV and film? Frankie Muniz’s acting career began in the 1990s in commercials and he made his film debut in the TV movie To Dance with Olivia, in 1997. After appearing in the TV movie What the Deaf Man Heard and the rom-com Lost & Found, Muniz got his big break when he was cast as the lead character in the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. Muniz played the title character, a child prodigy and the third-born child in a dysfunctional (but very entertaining) family of four boys (later five), who struggled with being an intellectual while dealing with the eccentricities of his family.
Frankie Muniz got his first starring film role in 2000 in the family drama My Dog Skip, and the success of Malcolm in the Middle gave his career a major boost. Muniz starred in the comedies Big Fat Liar, Agent Cody Banks (and the sequel Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London), and voiced the main character in Racing Stripes. However, Muniz started branching out to other genres, such as horror with the movie Stay Alive, and with time, his starring roles decreased and he started focusing on other types of projects – and here’s what happened to Frankie Muniz after his peak in the 2000s.
Is Frankie Muniz Still Acting? Recent Roles Explained
Frankie Muniz hasn’t stopped acting, but he hasn’t appeared in big projects like he did in the 2000s. Muniz’s projects since 2010 are the animated movie The Legend of Secret Pass, where he voiced Manu; the superhero movie Pizza Man, where he played Matt Burns, a dorky pizza delivery boy who gains powers after eating a genetically-engineered tomato, becoming the title Pizza Man; the short film Grapevine Valentine; the western Hot Bath an' a Stiff Drink 2, where he played Deputy Allistek Jenkins; the drama Road to Capri; and the family movie Another Day in Paradise. His most recent film role was Johnathan in the 2018 psychological thriller The Black String.
On TV, Muniz has made various appearances as himself and made brief appearances in different projects. Muniz’s most notable TV projects since 2010 are the sitcoms Last Man Standing and Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, the TV movie Sharkando 3: Oh Hell No!, and the series The Rookie. Muniz’s most recent TV appearances are in the medical drama New Amsterdam and the sitcom Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, where he played Jace and Shawn, respectively.
Frankie Muniz's Movie Comeback Explained
In May 2023, it was reported that Frankie Muniz is now set to return to the big screen in the sci-fi thriller Renner, directed by Robert Rippberger. Muniz is also returning to film in Half Baked 2, which is currently in post-production. Muniz’s return is a long-awaited and exciting one, more so as he has gone through health issues in the past years. Muniz has suffered nine concussions and has dealt with migraines that were initially misdiagnosed as mini-strokes. It was wrongly reported that Muniz had been dealing with amnesia, but he clarified that, while he does have individual gaps in his memory as a consequence of concussions, he doesn’t suffer from amnesia.
What Else Frankie Muniz Has Been Doing
Frankie Muniz’s career hasn’t been limited to acting, and in the 2000s, he began a career in racing, as he has had a long-running interest in it. Muniz has participated in a number of races and championships since the early 2000s, and in January 2023, it was announced that he would drive full-time for Rette Jones Racing in the ARCA Menards Series in the team’s No. 30 Ford Mustang. Muniz has also branched out to music, playing drums for different bands and becoming the manager of the band Astro Lasso in 2017.
In addition to that, Muniz has been an active real estate investor, and in 2021, he announced a partnership with The Ridge Wallet. Frankie Muniz has been unstoppable, and hopefully, he will get more film and TV projects in the near future.