Mitch Punpayuk joined the KYMA News team in January of 2010 as the local "Movie Critic", but he has been part of the KYMA family, as an engineer since 2006 and is now happy to be in front of the camera and sharing his opinion on all the recent movies with the whole Desert Southwest.

Mitch was born in Goldsboro, NC, but was raised here in Yuma. He graduated from Cibola High School in 2000 and then attended Arizona State University in Tempe as a Psychology Major, and afterwards became involved in the Theatre Education Program at Arizona Western College.

Movies have always been a strong passion of Mitch's, from strongly developed characters to incredibly beautiful scenery and costume designs, but don't forget, a well choreographed fight scene can almost always cure a rather dull day. Mitch is also an accomplished writer and director; he successfully opened his first self written and directed play back in October of 2008 at Arizona Western College, and a credited actor; starring in many theatrical stage roles and a few local commercials.

When Mitch isn't watching movies you can often find him working on other film projects with his friends, whether it's writing, filming, or acting, he is always hard at work keeping up with the entertainment industry with both technology advances and movie news.

E-mail Mitch at:MovieswithMitch@kyma.com