Christian Cantamessa (born October 4, 1976, in Savona, Italy) is an Italian-American writer, director, and video game creator best known as lead designer and co-writer of Red Dead Redemption and the Manhunt series, designer on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and writer of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

In the early 1990s, Christian Cantamessa was a teenager from Rapallo, Italy, with no prior industry experience but a strong interest in video game development. He created the concept for a graphic adventure game centered on a small-time thief, originally titled ‘‘Steve Sailing on the Crime Wave’’. Christian met future collaborators through connections made at his father’s graphic design studio, leading to the formation of a small development team that began work on the project with financial support from his father and other early investors.

A prototype of the game was presented at the 1991 European Computer Entertainment Show (ECES) in London. Although the demo was highly unstable, the experience marked Christian’s first exposure to the international games industry. The original concept later evolved into Nippon Safes Inc., one of the early adventure games developed under the Dynabyte label. Christian eventually left the company while still attending high school, but the experience marked the beginning of his career in video games.

Christian later joined Trecision, a relatively small developer located in his home town of Rapallo. Coworkers from this era remember a collaborative, lighthearted atmosphere akin to "being back in high school," despite terrible eating habits and messy office spaces. As Trecision's financial outlook worsened, Christian and fellow programmer Tiziano Sardone chose to leave the unfinished project just before the game's release and the studio's subsequent restructuring away from traditional adventure games. Christian noted that he never actually played the finished version of his game, released with the title of The Watchmaker, choosing instead to value the critical skills he developed and the lifelong industry relationships he built while there.

Immediately after leaving, he transitioned to Ubisoft's newly created Milan Studio, to focus on level design and game design.

In the early 2000s, Christian joined Rockstar North, then known as DMA Design, where he worked on ‘‘Grand Theft Auto III’’ (uncredited), ‘‘Manhunt’’, and ‘‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’’. Following his work on ‘‘San Andreas’’, Rockstar transferred Cantamessa to Rockstar San Diego to help lead development on the next installment in the ‘‘Red Dead’’ franchise.

Full development of ‘‘Red Dead Redemption’’ commenced in 2006, with Cantamessa serving as the game’s lead designer and co-writer. He collaborated closely with technical director Ted Carson and art directors Josh Bass and Daren Bader, both of whom had previously worked on ‘‘Red Dead Revolver’’.

Christian is the founder and CEO of Sleep Deprivation Lab, which is a production company and video game consulting firm known for work on Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Crew, Forza Horizon, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Middle-earth: Shadow of War.