Vargas’ films put a focus on LGBT identity and his own Manila cultural roots. His short film Swirl (2014) was presented at the 2016 British Film Institute Flare: London LGBT Film Festival. His queer coming-of-age debut feature 2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten (2016), set in the late 1990s in the aftermath of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, was awarded Best Picture at the Cinema One Originals Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Torino LGBTQI Film Festival. He graduated cum laude with a special mention in Narrative Filmmaking from the University of the Philippines Film Institute. Vargas’ undergraduate thesis short film Geography Lessons (2014), a film fully spoken in his native tongue Kapampangan, won him the Best Director award at the 2015 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. Vargas was born and raised in the province of Pampanga, Philippines.