Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumni Samuel Munoz (BA, Acting, 1999) and Aaron Munoz (BA, Acting, 2001) are featured in two independent films making rounds of the festival circuit this season.

They costar in the short film 53:1, which will be screened at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival on April 19. Samuel Munoz is also a producer on the film. And they have supporting roles in the feature Searching for Fortune.

Samuel Munoz is also a supporting actor and fight choreographer for the short film Wander Woman, receiving its world premiere during the Nashville Film Festival April 16-25. And he’s a leading actor and fight choreographer in the short film Flux, which was recently screened at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards.

Samuel Munoz has just been appointed Assistant Professor of Movement (a new tenure-track position) at the Theatre Department in the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. He was hired following his one-year appointment at the conservatory as a visiting professor.

Despite their name, Aaron Munoz and Samuel Munoz are not related. They met as students at the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department’s BA program in Acting in the late 1990s, and have been working together frequently over the years since their graduations. They are currently gearing up to launch a Fall 2015 tour of their acclaimed two-man stage show 2 Households 2 Assholes: Shakespeare’s R&J, which won rave reviews in its premiere at 2012 New York International Fringe Festival.