Here's What Really Happened To Frankie Muniz

Frankie Muniz made an impression on moviegoers as the star of the 2000 family film "My Dog Skip," when he was all of 14 (although he was playing a kid much younger). That same year, he was cast in the title role in the irreverent Fox sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle."

When the show ended its seven-season run in 2006, Muniz's acting career took a back seat to some other pursuits. While it may have appeared that he'd stepped away from the spotlight, the truth is far more complex, with Muniz embracing numerous career paths over the years that have been as eclectic as they were unexpected. "I've been fortunate to do, like, all my dream jobs I've ever wanted," he explained in an interview with People. "I got to do all these great things and it's because I have drive."

To find out more about what he's been up to, read on to explore what really happened to Frankie Muniz.

Following Frankie Muniz's breakout role in "My Dog Skip" and the popularity of "Malcolm in the Middle," it wasn't long before he began receiving offers to star in movies. The first of these was 2002's "Big Fat Liar," in which he shared the screen with fellow teen star Amanda Bynes and future Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti. That was followed by his starring role as a teenage spy in the 2003 espionage spoof "Agent Cody Banks" and its London-set sequel.

Interviewed by BBC, Muniz revealed that the "Cody Banks" sequel would be geared to a slightly older audience (teens from 12 to 18) than the first film, which was aimed at kids aged 8 to 12. However, he pointed out that he wasn't planning to push the envelope much beyond what his young fanbase would expect. "I can't make an abrupt change from kids to adult movies because most of my fans are young," he explained. "So I'm not going to be a psycho killer in an R-rated movie any time soon. After all, my fans' parents wouldn't let them see it!"

Another reason why he was attracted to doing movies was because he felt it would prevent him becoming typecast due to his identification with TV teen Malcolm. "I don't want to be stereotyped into one role. That's why, when I do other movies or shows or things, I try to pick different characters," he told IGN in 2002.

As both he and his fans grew older, Frankie Muniz eventually did venture into more adult-oriented roles, which was the case when he appeared in the 2006 horror film "Stay Alive." While shooting the film in New Orleans, Muniz met and began dating hairdresser Jamie Gandy. The relationship progressed quickly; after just seven weeks, Muniz popped the question. "I plan to move to New Orleans this summer and leave Los Angeles behind," Muniz, then 20, told Scripps Howard News Service. He never followed through; in 2008, he told People that the engagement was off, and that their relationship status was somewhat murky. "I am not engaged anymore. I'm still with her ... kinda," he said, via Live Journal. 

After he and Gandy broke up, he then began seeing Elyria Turnbow. In February 2011, that relationship hit a bump in the road when an argument required police intervention. According to the police report, obtained by TMZ, she told officers that Muniz had "grabbed a gun and held it to his head, possibly with the intent of [killing himself]." He was then taken to the hospital. He disputed that, claiming he'd only gone to the hospital because he'd fallen and hit his head.

The two eventually made up. Later that year, in fact, they got engaged — but subsequently split.

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While Frankie Muniz spent his childhood entertaining film and television viewers, as he grew older he began to experience some health issues. As Muniz explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he'd suffered numerous concussions while playing sports as a kid. Then, as an adult, he began experiencing transient ischemic attacks — aka TIAs, a type of mini-stroke in which the flow of blood to the brain is temporarily cut off. All told, he estimated he'd had at least 15 ITAs.

"By that point, I already had nine concussions," he said. "But concussions don't usually correlate with TIAs." According to Muniz, doctors did extensive testing to determine what was causing his TIAs, but nothing definitive emerged. He later revealed that the cause of his mini-strokes was found to be aura migraines.

One apparent side effect — of either the strokes or the concussions, or the combination — was that he suffered memory loss. In fact, he revealed during an appearance on the "Wild Ride! with Steve-O" podcast, that when he thinks back to his seven seasons on "Malcolm and the Middle," he has difficulty distinguishing an event that actually happened from something he'd dreamed up. "I've thought about it a lot like over my years of like, you know, why do I have a bad memory?" he said, as reported by The Arizona Republic. "The only logical thing I can say is, yeah, I've had nine concussions."

Be sure to read Grunge's feature about other 2000s stars who were harboring surprising secrets about their health and personal lives.

Frankie Muniz has long been a fan of fast cars; when he turned 16, his birthday present to himself was one of the actual cars used in the movie "The Fast and the Furious." "I've been a big fan of racing my whole life, going to NASCAR and IndyCar races growing up," he revealed in an interview with GQ. "But then in 2004 I did a celebrity race in Long Beach and I won," he continued, recalling his elation at winning the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race. "Crossing that finish line first was the coolest feeling on the planet." 

Realizing that "Malcolm in the Middle" was coming to an end (the show was cancelled in 2006), Muniz's positive experience on the racetrack pushed him to pursue racing professionally. He launched his racing career in 2006, competing in the Formula BMW USA Championship and then, from 2007 until 2009, racing in the ChampCar Atlantic Championship.

For Muniz, the appeal of racing was that success was measured in speed and skill. "As an actor, I can work as hard as I ever have on a role, really get into the character, do what I think is my best work ever. And then you'll come along and say, 'Eh ... it's okay.' It's subjective," he said. "But as a race car driver, you put in the work and you see those results in black and white."

During a 2009 race, Frankie Muniz crashed his car. He hardly walked away unscathed, suffering serious injuries that took him away from his new pursuit while facing a long road to recovery. "I broke my back, had pins in my hand, broken ribs, a broken ankle," he told GQ. "It took me a long time to heal."

When appearing on "Bialik Breakdown," the podcast of "The Big Bang Theory" star Mayim Bialik, Muniz shared more details of the crash, some of which were downright gruesome. As he recalled, his car unexpectedly became airborne when he hit the brake. "I remember being just so mad that I was out of the race," he recalled, noting that he exited the car on his own and even walked away from the smashed-up vehicle. 

It wasn't until about 10 minutes later, when he experienced difficulty removing his helmet, that he began to notice something out of the ordinary when he took off his glove and saw his thumb dangling limply. "I had exploded the joint that holds my thumb on ..." he said, recalling it was at that precise moment that he began realizing how much pain he was in. "Once I saw it, I was like, 'Oh, that hurts, really bad,'" he added.

While sidelined from racing as he recovered from his injuries, Frankie Muniz could have easily restarted his acting career. Instead, in late 2009 he made an unexpected left turn by joining an unsigned Arizona band, You Hang Up, as drummer. 

In 2012, he joined Pennsylvania-based Kingsfoil as their drummer. As Muniz recounted in an interview (via PennLive), his manager turned him on to the pop-rock band's music. "I literally became the biggest Kingsfoil fan," he said. "I was literally saying, no matter what happens, they are my favorite band." When he learned the band would be holding auditions for a new drummer, he picked up his sticks and gave it a shot — and was hired. He then joined the band on tour. As was the case when he was racing cars, Muniz took an all-or-nothing attitude toward his work — which meant pressing the pause button on his film and television projects. "I'm not saying no to acting forever," he told PennLive. "But you really can't do both. Even with racing, I couldn't do racing and be in the band. They're all really full-time things. You really need to dedicate all your time and energy into one thing in order to be successful."

Eventually, however, the draw of Hollywood proved strong enough to lure him away from Kingsfoil. In 2014, he announced that he'd amicably parted ways with the group due to some conflicts in their respective schedules.

A few years after his exit from Kingsfoil, Frankie Muniz embraced a new opportunity that allowed him to showcase a whole new set of skills beyond acting, racing cars, and playing drums: ballroom dancing. In 2017, he was announced as a member of the cast of "Dancing With the Stars," competing in the show's 25th season alongside such other celebs as 1990s pop star Debbie Gibson, "Shark Tank" real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, and former boy band singer Nick Lachey.

During his time on the show, Muniz focused on dancing with the same fervor that he'd previously brought to his other careers, even if that meant working through some debilitating injuries. As he told Us Weekly at the time, in addition to the multiple injuries he'd experienced from his 2009 car crash, he was also contending with something more recent. "I tore my meniscus two months ago. I'm a walking disaster," he jokingly admitted. "I'm taking this so seriously. I literally am dedicated to icing, sauna, whatever I can to heal so I'm ready for the next day."

Ultimately, Muniz didn't win, although he comported himself well enough to dance away with a respectable third-place finish. The Season 25 mirrorball trophy wound up going to actor-singer Jordan Fisher.

Having excelled at acting, music, race car driving, and even ballroom dancing, who could really be surprised to see Frankie Muniz unveil yet another side of his multifaceted personality? That was evident in 2018 by the emergence of his inner entrepreneur when he and his fiancee, Paige Price, purchased an olive oil store Scottsdale, Arizona. 

In 2019, the new owners of Outrageous Olive Oils & Vinegars revealed how they'd gotten into that particular sideline. "We were looking for something to do together," Muniz told The Arizona Republic. "We had been customers at the store before and we just knew we liked the product and we wanted to do something together. Now, it's become our lives."

That wasn't hyperbole. As he explained, he and Price were extremely hands-on when it came to running the business. "My day this morning started at 6 a.m., getting up to go to Restaurant Depot to get products that we needed. Then I got here early to start filling bottles and to make sure all the shelves were stocked," Muniz said, revealing that they fill and seal all the bottles of olive oil themselves, even doing the labeling. "It's a lot of work," he admitted, "but it's really rewarding when people come in and rave about the product." In 2021, the couple decided to sell the business. "I've sold my olive oil company and moved on to a new adventure!" he wrote in an Instagram post.

After two failed engagements, Frankie Muniz finally found what he'd been looking for in Paige Price. Having teamed up for their olive oil venture, the couple got engaged in 2018. "Paige and I, we don't spend a minute apart," Muniz gushed when interviewed by People. "I don't get bored of her."

The couple eloped in 2019 and then exchanged vows in a 2020 ceremony, but to say that the nuptials didn't go off as planned would be an understatement. As Muniz recalled for People, the bride had decorated the venue with dried floral arrangements, with candles lining the walkway leading to the altar. The effect was beautiful until a wayward flame from a candle inadvertently met some dried flowers, creating an unexpectedly fiery spectacle. "Right as the officiant started, some of the flowers were knocked into a candle and literally, 10-foot flames. Everyone was screaming!" Muniz said. The fire was extinguished quickly, and the ceremony proceeded; however, he noted, "It was definitely a memorable moment!"

When it was all over, Muniz marveled at how much of a mark the ceremony had left on him. "I never thought the wedding would have such a big impact on me," he said. "It was the most magical thing we've ever done together ... We are just enjoying it all. And we definitely want to have kids!"

It wasn't long after his wedding that Frankie Muniz's desire to start a family with bride Paige Price came to fruition. In September 2020, the couple revealed that they were expecting their first child. 

The following March, they announced that their baby had arrived. "World, meet my son Mauz Mosley Muniz," he wrote in an Instagram post accompanying photos of their newborn. Even at that early stage, fatherhood had left him completely changed. "I had heard that it would," he continued, "but I never would have expected the impact seeing my son would have on me."

Becoming a new dad made it all the more difficult to fulfill his obligation to appear on bizarro reality show "The Surreal Life," the VH1 spectacle in which a gaggle of celebrities live together in a camera-equipped house, "Big Brother"-style. "My son was six months old when I left and it was really hard to leave," he admitted to E! News. "Obviously you want to be there."

Becoming a father ultimately led Frankie Muniz to return to pursue his dream of becoming a professional race car driver after more than a decade away from the sport. As he told GQ, he realized that all of his major achievements were in the past. "But I wanted him to grow up and see me working hard towards a goal, of me reaching that goal and actually making it to the NASCAR Cup Series, racing in the Daytona 500, winning the Daytona 500. I'm 37, so if I'm going to do it, I have to do it now."

In 2021, Muniz made a return to racing, at first driving stock cars. He then began to compete full-time in the ARCA Menard series, with an eye toward progressing toward NASCAR. "This isn't a hobby for me," Muniz declared. "I want to race in the Daytona 500 in two years, which would make me the oldest rookie ever in the NASCAR Cup Series. That's my goal." (For a primer on the iconic Florida race and its place in motorsports history, read our feature about the untold truth of the Daytona 500.)

He made his NASCAR debut in February 2024, coming in 33rd out of 38 cars; he would have done better had he not become caught up in a wreck involving other vehicles. Still, he was adamant that he was no dilettante and was eager to demonstrate it on the track. "I'm excited to prove to people that I can race in this series," he told the Associated Press. 

While Frankie Muniz's acting career has certainly run hot and cold, particularly when he's been following his other passions, he's never completely abandoned acting. That's certainly evident from his extensive list of screen credits, post-"Malcolm in the Middle." Since then, he's made regular appearances in film and television, ranging from a 2007 guest spot on the CBS procedural crime drama "Criminal Minds," to playing himself in a 2012 episode of the sitcom "Don't Trust the B—— in Apartment 23," to more recent appearances in "The Rookie," and "Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens."

Meanwhile, buzz has been building that Muniz could return to his signature role in a potential reunion project that's being spearheaded by his former TV dad, Bryan Cranston. Since "Malcolm," Cranston went on to massive acclaim via the critically acclaimed drama "Breaking Bad" and other projects, yet he's eager to step back into the shoddy shoes of schlubby suburban dad Hal. "All these boys who are now grown-ups and on their own with kids of their own, and it'd be fun to explore that. I'm open to that," Cranston told "Entertainment Tonight."

Interviewed by Fox News in 2022, Muniz confirmed he was aware of Cranston's efforts and was all-in to reprise Malcolm. "I know Bryan Cranston is really into the idea and he's kind of heading writing the script and getting everything rolling," Muniz said. "So, there might be something. I would be down 100 percent."