Pendyala Nageswara Rao (6 March 1917 - 31 August 1984) was a popular drama actor, singer and music director in Telugu Film Industry for over 25 years from early 1950s to late 1970s. He has composed music for many successful Telugu movies during that period. He was born at Vanukuru near Vijayawada and later shifted to Katur. He was closely associated with Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy as they were students of Kapilavai Ramanatha Sastry. They learned acting as well as singing poems from him. His ancestors including his father Sitaramaiah were music exponents.