We regret to announce that Grant Imahara, formerly one of the hosts of both Mythbusters and Netflix’s White Rabbit Project , has died. He was only 49. He passed away suddenly yesterday, July 13 2020 , of a brain aneurysm, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Born October 23, 1970 in Los Angeles, Imahara studied electrical engineering at USC before working at Lucasfilm as a model maker and roboticist. He spent almost a decade at Lucasfilm, where he worked for THX and ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) where he applied his technological gifts to Galaxy Quest, Jurassic Park, Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Van Helsing, A. I., and two of the Matrix movies, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolution.
After working for Lucasfilm, he joined the cast of Mythbuilders, co-hosting more than 200 episodes between 2005 and 2014, He eventually went on to acting and voice acting. He appeared in Star Trek Continues as Lt. Sulu and in Star Trek: Renegades as Lt. Masaru. (Masaru was his middle name in real life.) He voiced Kang the Conqueror in two episodes of Avengers Assemble! He appeared as himself on S.H.I.E.L.D.E.D. and The Guild. For all intents and purposes he appeared as himself on as episode of Eureka as an Emo robot technician. He appeared on BattleBots, where he designed and competed with a robot called Deadblow, and eventually became a judge. He also appeared in the movie Sharknado 3.
He wrote Kickin’ Bot: An Illustrated Guide to Building Combat Robots. His best known robotic accomplishments were rebooting the Energizer Bunny and working on R2D2. On Mythbusters, he not only built and operated, but designed robots an computers for the show. He consulted with Disney Imagineers on audio-animatronic projects.
Imahara was much beloved in the fandom community, and he loved us back. He was very popular at conventions, extremely approachable and personable, and was as much a fan as any of the rest of us. Some of the staff here at SCIFI.radio have met him or worked with him at various times, and many known by us considered him a BFF.
The world has lost one of its shining lights. Goodnight, Grant. We were honored to have you among us, and the world is a better place for your having been in it.
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