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.