Aleks Muñoz

Alex Muñoz, a Los Angeles-based director and screenwriter, received his MFA from USC's graduate school of Cinema and Television (where he graduated as Valedictorian), and began directing national commercials while still a student. Among his commercial spots are the MTV Rock The Vote spot starring John Leguizamo, a hilarious MCI spot featuring Dennis Miller, and an award-winning anti-gang PSA spot, which was scored by DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill.
Alex's first short film, Por Vida, won several awards and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He then went on to direct one of the stories in Riot, a multi-director film about the LA Riots of 1992 (starring Mario Van Peebles, Luke Perry, and Dante Basco) for Showtime. Riot premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, won the Jury Prize at the Geneva Film Festival and won "Best Made for TV Movie" from the NY Daily News.
In 2002, Muñoz received a grant from the NEA to teach film-making to incarcerated youth at the California Youth Authority (CYA). Three years later, Muñoz created his own non-profit organization called FYI: Films by Youth Inside, which is dedicated to teaching film-making skills to incarcerated youth. FYI: Films by Youth Inside was featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times in December 2007. Read more about the program here .
Muñoz's first feature film, Living The Life, starring Jay Hernandez, was released in March 2004, and was awarded Best Domestic Feature Film at the NY Latino Film Festival. His 2006 short film, Dilemma, (produced through the Black Hollywood Education Resource Center ) played the festival circuit throughout 2006, and his documentary short Lil' Skrappy Boy took the 2007 Best Documentary Short award at the UrbanWorld/Vibe Film Festival in NYC.

In addition to his work with Films by Youth Inside, and a new music video and documentary about his brother, recording artist pc muñoz , Alex's plate remains stacked high through 2010, as both director as well as behind-the-scenes producer. Upcoming projects include I Fuetsan I Tao Tao (Strength of the People), a coming of age story about a wayward and rebellious 'Chamaole' (mixed) youth who finds connection and empowerment by embracing his Chamorro (indigenous pacific islander) heritage, a semi-autobiographical project entitled Bicycles and Bridges, a powerful documentary about Filipino immigrants on Guam entitled Under the American Sun, and many more.Below you can check out Alex's Anti-Gang PSA, with music by DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill. Also below are two of Alex's latest music videos: "Pool", by San Francisco-based acoustic soul artist Derek Lassiter, and "Should've Known" by San Francisco rockers Mud.