Dante Testa (Turin, 24 August 1861 – Turin, 3 March 1923) was an Italian actor, director, and company manager, a prominent figure in theater and silent film. With a background in theater, he trained artistically in the company of Ermete Zacconi, later establishing himself as a respected performer and director of companies specializing in the Piedmontese dialect repertoire. With the advent of cinema, he became one of the pioneers of Turin cinema, working actively for the production company Itala Film. His most significant work as a director is the feature film *Padre* (1912), in which he directed Zacconi himself and which is considered one of the key films of Italian silent cinema for its dramatic depth. As a film actor, his most famous role is that of the priest Karthon in the epic *Cabiria* (1914) by Giovanni Pastrone. His career represents an important example of the artistic transition from the stage to the big screen at the dawn of the national film industry.