Miguel Sandoval
About this Artist
Born November 16, 1951 in Washington, D.C, Sandoval came to acting in 1975 through the study of pantomime at a school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While training with the group, he was asked to join a local theater company that performed in parks and schools. When the company closed in 1979, Sandoval launched his own theater troupe, which trained inmates at the New Mexico State Penitentiary. He was then cast in a science fiction Western called "Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann". That film's producer, former Monkee and audio-visual pioneer Michael Nesmith, recommended Sandoval to director Alex Cox, for his next production, "Repo Man". Sandoval would appear in and collaborate with Cox on five subsequent projects, including "Sid and Nancy", "Straight to Hell" and "Walker".
During this period, he forged another rewarding collaboration with director Spike Lee, who cast him as hot-tempered New York police officer Ponte in "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever". Sandoval soon settled into regular work in character roles - federal agents and judges in "White Sands" and the Steven Bochco-produced "Civil Wars", drug lords in "Clear and Present Danger" and "Murder One", and an array of lawmen on episodic television.
Sandoval also played an amber mine overseer in "Jurassic Park", convinced Kramer to put his pet rooster in a cock fight on "Seinfeld", and had frequent guest roles on "ER", "The X-Files" and "The West Wing". In 2005, Sandoval was cast as sympathetic district attorney Manuel Devalos, who employed Patricia Arquette's psychic abilities to solve crime cases on "Medium."
In 2017, he was cast in the limited series "Sharp Objects" with Amy Adams, and “Station 19”, a drama about Seattle firefighters spun off from "Grey's Anatomy" and produced by Shonda Rimes.