Frankie Muniz

History

Racing can be very taxing, especially on the mind. Find out how you can keep your mind and body strong and healthy here at cellgevity-glutathione.com.

Frankie has had a successful acting career, which started when he was 8 years old after watching his older sister perform in a local theater production. Since then, he has starred in several feature films, including My Dog Skip, Big Fat Liar and Agent Cody Banks. He also starred as the title character of the hit US sitcom Malcolm in the Middle which ran for 7 seasons.

Now that Malcolm’s run has finished, Frankie has more time to focus on his other passion - racing. Frankie got his drivers license in December 2001, and quickly developed a love of fast cars. Over the past few years he has bought and sold several cars, including the VW Jetta from The Fast and the Furious and a 1950’s Porsche Speedster.

In 2004, Frankie got the chance to race to in the Pro/Celebrity race at the Long Beach Grand Prix. One year later he was back to take first place out of the celebrity drivers, and in 2006 he was back again to try and win as a Pro driver.

Frankie signed a 2 year deal with the Jensen Motorsport team and last year he took part in the Formula BMW USA championship. This year he has been training and preparing for the Champ Car Atlantic series, with hopes of some day racing in the Champ Car World Series.

Frankie joins the Jensen Motorsport team

Frankie Muniz, a successful film and Emmy nominated television actor, has started an exciting new career as a professional race car driver. Muniz has agreed to a comprehensive 2-year program with the professional Jensen MotorSport racing team to pursue his passion for professional car racing. Frankie is the newest member of the team, and will compete in the prestigious Formula BMW USA championship in 2006, and the Champ Car Atlantic championship in 2007.

Muniz states, “I have had an incredible time these past 8 years as an actor. Having done little else but work since age 12, and with a passion for fast cars, professional race car driving is something that I am really excited to pursue”.

Muniz (20) continues, “Eric Jensen, and the entire Jensen team, have taught me a great deal during our winter testing program. My times are now competitive with the best young drivers, and I am very focused on learning as much as possible to be able to race with the best this year and next. It’s pretty cool and quite motivating that in such a short time I will be able to race on the same famous tracks with Formula One and Champ Car drivers worldwide. This is such an incredible opportunity.”

Formula BMW has quickly become one of the most impressive developmental racing series in the world. Formula BMW USA is a championship contested annually by some of the top young driving prospects, on some of the most famous circuits on the continent, including the Formula One races at Montreal and Indianapolis. Frankie will be competing with an elite list of young drivers in the 2006 series as he prepares to advance up the racing ladder to the Champ Car Atlantic series in 2007, with view to either competing in the Formula One or Champ Car World Series in the future. The effectiveness of Formula BMW has produced many top drivers, including two current Formula One drivers - Nico Rosberg and Ralf Schumacher.

Jensen MotorSport Team President Eric Jensen states: “Frankie has performed extremely well in pre-season testing. He is quickly learning the multitude of skills required to be a competitive professional race car driver. Frankie has an ambitious plan to compete in the Formula BMW USA championship in 2006, and the Champ Car Atlantic championship in 2007. Given his passion and apparent skills, the entire Jensen MotorSport team is excited to have Frankie as one of our drivers for the next two years, and we are expecting some great successes together.”

Jensen continues, “Race fans and fans of Frankie personally will be able to watch him compete live at seven (7) races on the 2006 Formula BMW USA championship calendar, including:

May 19-21 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (near Columbus, Ohio)
May 26-29 Lime Rock Park, Connecticut
June 23-25 Canadian Grand Prix @ Montreal (with Formula One)
June 30 - July 2 United States Grand Prix @ Indianapolis (with Formula One)
July 28-30 San Jose Grand Prix, California (with Champ Car World Series)
August 11-13 Denver Grand Prix, Colorado (with Champ Car World Series)
September 1-3 Mosport Raceway, Toronto, Canada

The Champ Car Atlantic championship is the world famous feeder category to the Champ Car World Series. That championship competes at many famous circuits including the Long Beach Grand Prix, about 30 miles from Frankie’s home in Hollywood, California. Fans will be able to see Frankie race live in front of big crowds in many other cities in the 2007 season including Denver, San Jose, Cleveland, Houston, Montreal, Portland, and more..

Frankie has every intention of continuing his acting career. “Malcolm in the Middle” will come to an end in March after seven successful years and Muniz will next appear in the Disney/Spyglass feature film, “Stay Alive,” a thriller produced by McG, slated for wide release on March 24th.

Source: www.jensenmotorsport.com

Pro/Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix
William Shatner, John Elway and Martina Navratilova are among the expected field of drivers from film, TV and sports who will battle it out with seven professional drivers April 8 in the 30th Anniversary Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, part of the 32nd Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend.

And, the 10-lap dash for charity will have something new this year – each driver will be behind the wheel of a race-ready Scion tC, the new official car of the event held on the 1.97-mile, 11-turn street circuit.

Practice/qualifying sessions will be held Fri., April 7, with the field expected to take the green flag at 12:15 p.m. Sat., April 8.

Joining Shatner (Captain Kirk in “Star Trek;” “Boston Legal”), NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Elway and International Tennis Hall of Fame Navratilova in the “amateur” ranks will be:

  • Antonio Sabato Jr. (“Bold and the Beautiful;” “Melrose Place”)
  • Bo Bice (RCA recording artist; American Idol season 4 runner-up)
  • Bucky Lasek (Pro skateboarder, X Games gold medalist)
  • Dave Mirra (Pro BMX rider, 14 medals at X Games)
  • Paul Caine (Publisher, PEOPLE Magazine)
  • Roger Cross (“24;” “Taken;” “Peacemaker”)
  • Shannon Miller (1996 Olympic Gold Medalist gymnast)
  • William Fichtner (“Invasion;” “The Longest Yard;” “Crash”)
  • Xzibit (Host of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride;” “8 Mile”)
  • Thom Naito, business analyst and on-line charity auction winner

They’ll be rubbing fenders with these professional drivers:

  • Patrick Dempsey (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Sweet Home Alabama”)
  • Frankie Muniz, returning champion (“Malcolm in the Middle”)
  • Todd Bodine (NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series)
  • David Reutimann (NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series)
  • Johnny Greaves, (Pro Off-Road Truck Race Champion)
  • Tom Rudnai (Longo Toyota General Manager)
  • Jeff Kincaid, (Pro Off-Road Truck Race champion)

“Having the mix of returning stars with firsthand experience and new drivers with their enthusiasm will combine for one of the most unique races we’ve had to date,” said Les Unger, Toyota’s national motorsports manager. “The Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race draws some of the most competitive celebrity and professional drivers because it offers the high-speed challenge of real racing combined with a worthwhile charitable endeavor.”

Toyota will donate 5,000 dollars to “Racing for Kids” in the name of each celebrity racer, and another 5,000 dollars to the winning racer’s charity of choice. Racing for Kids is a non-profit program benefiting childrens’ hospitals in Long Beach and Orange, CA.

In addition, the ninth annual “PEOPLE Pole Award, sponsored by PEOPLE Magazine, will present a 15,000-dollar donation honoring the polesitter for the race.

In the past 14 years, the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race has generated more than 1.3 million dollars for childrens’ hospitals in Southern California.

Biography

Frankie Muniz was born on December 5, 1985, in Woodridge NJ. He lived near his grandparents, and at the age of five Frankie learned to play golf from his grandfather.

When Frankie was eight he moved with his family to North Carolina where his acting career started. After seeing his sister, Christina, perform on-stage in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Frankie wanted to try acting for himself, and auditioned for a part in A Christmas Carol. At the age of nine, this was Frankie’s first acting role, but he still managed to land the part of Tiny Tim. While rehearsals for A Christmas Carol were taking place, Frankie was spotted by a talent agent who signed him up. Frankie then began auditioning for commercials.

Frankie still continued his stage acting in local productions such as The Wizard of Oz, Our Town, and The Sound of Music.

As his success continued, he was asked to try out for movie and TV roles. All the travelling he had to do meant that he had to be home schooled since sixth grade. His mom gave up nursing to become his full time tutor. In 1997, Frankie got a small part in To Dance with Olivia, followed by the part of Sammy in What the Deaf Man Heard. Both of these roles were in TV movies, but he then got a small part in his first motion picture, It Had to Be You.
He appeared in several TV shows in 1998, including Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Spin City. In the same year he also got the part of Willie Morris in the movie My Dog Skip. This was a big role for Frankie, but his big success was yet to come.

In 1999, at the age of thirteen, Frankie auditioned for the part of Malcolm in a new TV series Malcolm in the Middle. Frankie was sure that he wouldn’t get the part as the producers had stated the character was nine, however they wanted Frankie to play the part so much, that they raised Malcolm’s age to twelve. The show was then ready to go, and began filming in 1999. The show was set to air in September of 1999, however, Fox decided to move the air date to January 2000 to allow more time to promote the show. This would also tie in with the release of My Dog Skip in the same month. Malcolm in the Middle proved to be such a success, that Fox asked them to film three more episodes to add to the first thirteen that were filmed in the previous year.

Frankie continued to do movies after filming each season of Malcolm in the Middle. His next role was in the Disney Channel movie, Miracle in Lane 2, followed by the part of Scooch in the MGM movie Deuces Wild.
Then, in 2001 he filmed Big Fat Liar with co-star Amanda Bynes. Big Fat Liar tells the story of two friends (Jason and Kaylee) who have to travel to Hollywood to get producer, Marty Wolf, to admit he stole Jason’s paper. After Marty refuses, they begin playing a number of pranks on him until he admits to Jason’s parents that he did in fact steal his paper.

In 2002, Frankie filmed Agent Cody Banks in which he plays a junior secret agent working for the CIA. He has to get close to Natalie Conners (Hilary Duff) in order to find out what her father is working on. He has unknowingly developed deadly nanobots which are capable of eating anything they come in contact with. Cody has to try and stop this new technology from falling into the wrong hands - the only problem is the CIA didn’t teach Cody how to talk to girls. Agent Cody Banks proved to be a big success, and in 2003 Frankie played the teen CIA agent again in Agent Cody Banks 2, this time filmed in London, England in the summer of 2003.

Frankie did not make any movies in 2004. Instead, he took some time out and took part in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, went to Jamaica for Sehorn’s Corner Mother’s Day Weekend, and also went on tour with Hanson.
2005 saw the release of Racing Stripes, a tale of a baby zebra who grows up wanting to be a racer. Frankie voiced the title character, Stripes. Frankie also took part in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach for the second year running. He qualified in 9th place, but managed to quickly obtain first place which he maintained throughout the race. Frankie now gets to return in 2006 to race as a Pro driver.

In May 2005, Frankie started filming his new movie, Stay Alive, in which he plays Swink Sylvania. Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, and Steve Zahn are also staring in the movie.

Whilst filming Stay Alive in New Orleans he met his future wife, Jamie Gandy, who he proposed to shortly after returning to LA after filming wrapped.

In 2006, following the end of Malcolm in the Middle, Frankie decided to pursue his other passion - racing. In February 2006, he signed a two year contract with Jensen Motorsport to race in the Formula BMW USA championship in 2006, and the Champ Car Atlantic in 2007.

Despite his change of career, he has continued to do acting. In May 2006 he was in Miami to film his new movie My Sexiest Year.

-