Abington Heights grad Mike Dargatis’ journey from sports to Hollywood

Welcome back to the Film Room Podcast! In this episode, Joe Baress sits down with Mike Dargatis, a former Abington Heights standout football and basketball player and now an actor. They discuss his high school sports career, his transition to acting, his acting career and much, much more.

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Dargatis was a former Times-Tribune Athlete of the Week as a quarterback and helped lead the Comets to a District 2 Class 4A title in basketball during his senior year at Abington Heights. He moved on to Clarion University to play football before transferring to Wilkes, where he graduated with a degree in communication studies. He then moved to Pittsburgh where he had a job in medical records at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

That's when his career path changed, as he ended up on an A & E show “Those Who Kill” playing a waiter. From there, he knew he wanted to be an actor, and went full force into acting classes and workshops. He was an extra in major Hollywood films, playing a hospital patient in 2015’s “Southpaw” and a protester in 2016’s “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

He worked on independent films before earning a guest starring role on Investigation Discovery show “Who Killed Jane Doe” in 2018. Then he moved to Los Angeles. Dargatis has starred in many commercials for Walmart, Sling, Experian, Office Depot, DoorDash, August Home, AirBnb, Chase Bank, Wallor Smart Wallet, Mercedes, Lockheed Martin, Forward, VSP, Mazda and Arlo to name a few.

He's worked on films, such as 2021's "The Handler," 2022's "Gasoline Alley," which starred Bruce Willis, Luke Wilson and Devon Sawa, and 2024's "Saint Nick," among others. He also had a co-starring role in prime-time TV show "Magnum PI" in 2023. His likeness was also used in the popular video game "Spider-Man 2."