Steve Testa

Living life to the fullest every day: piloted U.S. Navy ships around the world; engineer for the NASA Space Shuttle; aide for the famed reporter, Walter Cronkite; acted opposite Tom Hanks in Apollo 13 ...Show More

Living life to the fullest every day: piloted U.S. Navy ships around the world; engineer for the NASA Space Shuttle; aide for the famed reporter, Walter Cronkite; acted opposite Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, and was a stand-in for Howie Mandel on AGT.His artistic passion first emerged in the music arena. Born in Arlington, Texas, his family moved to Ethiopia for some time when he was young. With not much else to do, his "country guitar" playing mother would entertain the family, which lead to Steve learning how to play.When they moved to St. Louis, Missouri, Steve put the guitar down, but not for long. Throughout his school years, he played in a band but also discovered the piano, trombone, and his love for jazz.This pursuit of music led Steve to attend college at North Texas State, known today as the University of North Texas. During this time, he also began acting in student films but became truly fascinated with Physics, for which he earned a Bachelor's Degree. After graduating, Steve headed to San Diego where he served in the United States Navy as a ship's pilot (USS Durham LKA-114) and an intelligence officer. He found balance creatively by playing guitar (Steve Dallas Testa song on iTunes - "Dreams I'll Never See"), scuba diving, and taking classes to hone his acting chops during his downtime.After his tour in the military, Steve married his wife and became the father of two daughters. Along the way, he joined the reserves and relocated his budding family to Cocoa Beach, Florida, (aka "The Space Coast") where he worked as a Space Shuttle Systems Engineer for NASA at Kennedy Space Center. His artistic path would surface once again when he became a technical consultant on the celebrated feature film Apollo 13.And, as fate would have it, Steve was later selected by director Ron Howard to appear in a scene opposite Tom Hanks in this Oscar-winning film. Now eligible to join the Screen Actors Guild, this opportunity sparked Steve into pursuing his acting further with appearances in commercials, infomercials, and then in HBO's "From the Earth to the Moon" and the CW's "The Cape."Since retiring a few years ago from NASA and becoming "empty-nesters," Steve and his wife moved to Los Angeles. He has added several more performances to his resume, including the Amazon series The Last Tycoon and Here Now; his network television debut this summer as an "Imposter" on ABC's popular game-show series, To Tell the Truth, hosted by Anthony Anderson.Recently, Steve has ventured into producing, starting the film production company Foxtrot Creative LLC, along with his daughter, Fawn Testa-Ribeiro. Their first short film project, Lost and Found, hit the festival circuit, winning the 'Audience Award: Best Drama Short' at the 2018 Silicon Beach Film Festival in Los Angeles. It was recently picked-up by Roku and is available on Roku devices internationally on Roku's "Short's Daily" channel (a free channel download on Roku). Hide