'Not done yet': Pittsburgh filmmaker, actor stays positive, motivated in the face of cancer

By Samuel Long / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Mike Reeping didn’t have many friends while growing up in Pittsburgh, so he took solace in movies, music and comic books as a kid. 

The Allison Park resident, born in 1972, never had the “desire or focus” for school, he said in an email. But in high school, he finally found the courage to try out and perform in a school play — leading him to fall in love with acting. 

He attended the University of Pittsburgh for about a year before spending the rest of his 20s traveling, exploring the world and claiming a role in the 1996 national tour of the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar.”  

In his 30s, Reeping began acting in locally filmed movies, including “Waltz” (2024), “Head Case” (2023) and “Body Farm” (2020). 

“I loved the creativity involved from the lighting to sound to set design and everything in between,” he said. “In fact, I preferred being behind the camera rather than in front of it.”

This led Reeping to produce, write and direct his first feature film, “Active Shooters,” released in 2015. The film is sent in a dystopian future where a corrupt government deputizes four brothers to take down a crime lord who controls the police force — “until everything goes terribly wrong.”

“It was a lot of fun, stress and sleepless nights, but I’m still proud of it,” Reeping said. “Certainly not Oscar worthy, but was fun.” 

While not working on movies, he was creating and drawing his an animated series about movie reviews and parodies called “A Guy, A Fish, a Cat and a Movie,” which is still running on YouTube.

Reeping has also bartended full time for over 20 years to “pay the bills,” most recently at Barrel Junction in Shaler. He said he loves this job and his coworkers as he gets to meet a variety of different people. 

Back in May, Reepings ears started hurting, similar to how it feels to have swimmer’s ear. In June, he started having difficulty swallowing and, by July, he could only swallow protein shakes. 

“I knew I had to go to the hospital,” he said. “They did a biopsy and yep, it was throat cancer, a pretty aggressive one, too.” 

Before Reeping had time to process this information, he found himself in the hospital getting a tracheostomy, which is a surgical procedure that creates a hole in the neck to help with breathing, and a feeding tube. As he enters week five of treatment, he acknowledges the overwhelming support from his family and friends. 

“After the shock and panic, I started a GoFundMe for financial help. Not working for months adds up,” Reeping said. 

“I’ll tell ya what, there’s a lot of love out there. People from out of nowhere being very generous and sending prayers and thoughts. Barrel Junction even has a donation bucket for me. I’m legitimately blown away at how selfless and good people can be, especially nowadays when everything seems so bad.” 

Despite his difficulties, Reeping is doing all he can to stay positive, motivated by the feeling that he has a lot more creativity to offer the world. 

“I’m not done yet and I’m not going out like this,” he said. 

Sam Long: [email protected]