Grant Imahara

Grant Masaru Imahara (October 23, 1970 – July 13, 2020) was an American electrical engineer, roboticist, and television host.

He was best known for his work on the television series MythBusters, on which he designed, built and operated numerous robots and machines to test myths over the course of the show.

Imahara began his career at Lucasfilm, where he worked in the THX division as an engineer and in the Industrial Light & Magic division in visual effects.

His work has been featured in films from franchises such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Matrix, and Terminator.

His first foray into television was on the robot combat series BattleBots, for which he designed and competed with his robot Deadblow and later returned as a judge.

Imahara was also a chief model maker with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) on such movie projects as Galaxy Quest.

Imahara was born on October 23, 1970, to a Japanese-American family in Los Angeles, California.

His Japanese name was Imahara Masaru (今原 真申).

Imahara graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering.

For a time, he considered switching majors with the intention of becoming a screenwriter, but he decided to stay on the engineering track after assisting Tomlinson Holman, a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Imahara was also a live-action role-playing gamer, as revealed on White Rabbit Project.

After graduation, Imahara was hired as an engineer for Lucasfilm's THX division; he then moved to the company's visual effects division, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), where he worked for nine years.

While at ILM, he was involved in several films, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Galaxy Quest, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Van Helsing, and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Imahara has been credited in many feature films as a model maker.

In particular, he was credited for his work in updating the aging R2-D2 robots for the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

As an official Artoo Technician, he made a cameo appearance in the mockumentary R2-D2: Beneath the Dome.

He was also credited as chief model maker for Industrial Light & Magic on such projects as "Galaxy Quest" in 1999 wherein he designed custom circuit boards to provide the lighting effects on the NSEA-Protector space ship engine nacelles.

Imahara joined MythBusters on the invitation of friend and occasional employer Jamie Hyneman and former ILM colleague Linda Wolkovitch, who was an associate producer of MythBusters.

He joined as the third member of the Build Team alongside Kari Byron and Tory Belleci, replacing former MythBusters welder Scottie Chapman.

His colleagues often jokingly refer to him as the "geek" of the Build Team.

He often built robots that were needed for the show and specialized in operating computers and electronics for testing the myths.

Imahara was a cast member and story writer for the short film Architects of Evil, created for the 2004 Industrial Light & Magic Backyard Film Contest.

He was a mentor for the Richmond High robotics team Biomechs #841 for the FIRST Robotics Competition, lending his expert guidance on how to create the right robot for the right job.

Imahara was profiled in the magazine IEEE Spectrum, in an issue focusing on engineering dream jobs.

In 2005, Imahara joined the cast of Mythbusters as a member of the Build Team, appearing in over 200 episodes of the series until his departure in 2014.

In 2010, he designed the animatronic "robot skeleton" Geoff Peterson to serve as a sidekick on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

One of Imahara's independent projects, during early 2010, was constructing a robotic sidekick for Craig Ferguson, host of The Late Late Show.

The robot, named Geoff Peterson, was unveiled on The Late Late Show's April 5, 2010 episode.

It was controlled and voiced by comedian and voice actor Josh Robert Thompson.

In 2012, Imahara's likeness was used in the popular webcomic America Jr, in which he appeared as himself as a celebrity judge for a competition to select the country's Surgeon General.

Imahara, along with Byron and Belleci, left the show after the 2014 season.

He starred in the 2016 Netflix series White Rabbit Project alongside his MythBusters co-stars Kari Byron and Tory Belleci.

Imahara reunited with Byron and Belleci for the 2016 White Rabbit Project, a Netflix Original Series, in which the team investigated topics such as jailbreaks, superpower technology, heists, and bizarre World War II weapons, evaluated against a defined set of criteria and explored through experiments, builds, and tests.

The complete first season of the series was released on Netflix on December 9, 2016.

Despite receiving good reviews, the series was not renewed.

In addition to his role on MythBusters, he is known for his appearances on BattleBots, where he designed and competed with his robot Deadblow.

By 2018, he was selected as one of the judges for the eighth season on BattleBots.

He made a cameo appearance on Syfy's Eureka and the web series The Guild.

Other works include designing the circuit that creates the rhythmic oscillation of the arms of the modern Energizer Bunny; leading Team ILM to victory in an appearance on Junkyard Mega-Wars; as well as authoring Kickin' Bot: An Illustrated Guide to Building Combat Robots (ISBN 0-7645-4113-7)

Imahara died on July 13, 2020, at the age of 49, after suffering a ruptured intracranial aneurysm.