H. G. Dattatreya is a noted film and theatre actor associated with Kannada film industry. In a career spanning to three decades he has handled a variety of roles and has received two national awards and two Karnataka state awards for his acting performances. He is best known for his character roles in Munnudi (2000) and Bharath Stores (2012), the movies which helped him to bag National awards for Best Supporting Actor and Special Jury Award respectively. Munnudi gave him Karnataka state award for best actor while Aasphota (1987) earned him best actor supporting awards. He is a recipient of many other awards too.

His full name is Harihar Gundurao Dattatreya. He was born in Chitradurga of Mysore Kingdom in the year 1942. He had six siblings. He was brilliant in academics; scored first rank in matriculation exams and second rank in pre-degree course. He completed Electrical engineering in 1964, and later took a Masterâ??s degree in Engineering in 1978. He served in the Indian Air Force for over 25 years. He joined air force soon after his graduation in 1964. He has also taught at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and served as an administrator. Yet he is best known as an accomplished actor of Kannada screen. He started his acting career in the 1950s through plays and fully active in theatre during his college days of 1950s and 1960s. Later he joined Air Force and took a break from acting career. A late entry to films, he made his film debut through 1988 film â?? Udbhav and since then he is fully active in the film industry. After retirement he dedicated his full time to acting field. Parapancha, Vidaaya, Endendigu, Male Nilluvavarege, December-1, Matthe Satyagraha etc are some of his recent releases.