Grant Imahara, former host of the TV shows MythBusters and White Rabbit Project, has died at the age of 49.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Grant Imahara had reportedly passed away following a brain aneurysm.
The report also included a statement from the Discovery Channel confirming the death of the long-time co-host of the popular MythBusters program.
Adam Savage, who co-hosted the science entertainment series with Imahara, also took to his official Twitter account to share the tragic news.
I’m at a loss. No words. I’ve been part of two big families with Grant Imahara over the last 22 years. Grant was a truly brilliant engineer, artist and performer, but also just such a generous, easygoing, and gentle PERSON. Working with Grant was so much fun. I’ll miss my friend.
— Adam Savage (@donttrythis) July 14, 2020
Electronics wiz and robotics expert
Apart from being a program co-host, Imahara was an accomplished engineer who specialized in electronics and robotics, and he took full advantage of his engineering talents in the movie industry.
Like MythBusters main hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, Imahara had an extensive background in film special effects, having worked at Lucasfilm’s THX and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for several years.
As an ILM effects guy, he worked on popular films such as Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park and AI: Artificial Intelligence, Star Wars films The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, two Matrix films (Reloaded and Revolutions), Galaxy Quest, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and Van Helsing.
He would later become a mainstay of MythBusters during the third season of the program, eventually co-hosting more than 200 episodes until 2014.
He was the third member of the so-called Build Team, along with Tory Belleci and Kari Byron, having replaced former MythBusters welder Scottie Chapman.
In the show, Imahara often built robots used for myth-busting, as well as serving as the go-to guy for operating the computers and setting up the electronics for each episode.
Post-MythBusters career
In 2014, Imahara would leave MythBusters, alongside the other two members of the Build Team, Belleci and Byron.
A couple of years later, the trio would band together once again for the White Rabbit Project program on Netflix.
Similar to what they did in MythBusters, Imahara’s team would investigate various subjects each episode, ranging from technology to weaponry, from heists to jailbreaks, through experiments and tests.
After streaming for just one season of the White Rabbit Project it, unfortunately, got canceled by Netflix in 2016.
Outside of hosting, Imahara also acted in a number of film productions. He starred as Hikaru Sulu for 11 episodes in the Star Trek Continues web series:
Then in 2015, he took on the role of Lieutenant Masaru in the movie Star Trek Renegades.
Feature image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons