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Grant Imahara, host of MythBusters and White Rabbit Project, dies at 49
Grant Imahara, member of the MythBusters team and renowned roboticist responsible for feats of film engineering like the modern versions of the Star Wars droid R2-D2, has died at age 49.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Imahara died of a sudden brain aneurysm on Monday.
From Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic visual effects company, where Imahara helped create some of the defining visuals of the late '90s and early '00s on films like Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and The Matrix sequels, Imahara also competed on the beloved robot combat show BattleBots. This varied engineering and cinematic expertise led to his hiring on MythBusters, where he replaced welder Scottie Chapman as a permanent host.
Imahara was an essential member of the Discovery show's Build Team alongside Kari Byron and Tory Belleci, creating robots and other complex machines for the various mythbusting experiments put together by hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. When this cast began wrapping up their time on the show (Imahara, Byron, and Belleci left in 2014), he joined them on Netflix's White Rabbit Project which was a similarly themed streaming series.
Some of Imahara's other works include helping build the Energizer Bunny, Geoff Peterson (the robotic sidekick to The Late Late Show's Craig Ferguson), and (as an actor) playing the role of Sulu in the Webby-winning Star Trek Continues.
The builder, actor, and STEM advocate was remembered by many on social media, including fellow MythBusters alumni and those from around the world of entertainment:
