Some links on this page are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
Grant Imahara brought engineering to television not as a prop, but as the work that made an experiment possible. Viewers knew him from MythBusters, yet his career also ran through sound engineering, Hollywood animatronics, combat robotics and theme-park technology. Imahara died in Los Angeles on July 13, 2020, at 49; reports identified the cause as a brain aneurysm. IEEE Spectrum’s remembrance traces the breadth of that career.
From electrical engineering to movie effects
Grant Masaru Imahara earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California in 1993. He began his professional career at Lucasfilm’s THX division, first as an intern and then as a licensing engineer. The job called for testing loudspeakers and other audio equipment against THX specifications: a practical application of engineering judgment that was far removed from the television persona audiences would later recognize.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Mythbusters: Season 1 | $74.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
|
Mythbusters: The Complete Fifth Season (Season 5) | $50.54 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
|
Mythbusters Collection 10 | $38.41 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
|
Mythbusters: Season 4 | $129.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
|
Mythbusters Season 7 | $49.00 | Buy on Amazon |
In 1996, Imahara joined Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) as an animatronics engineer and model maker. Film effects work demanded that mechanical and electronic systems perform reliably while serving a story. His credits included The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Galaxy Quest, the Matrix sequels and practical-effects work connected to the Star Wars prequels.
His connection to R2-D2 was hands-on. According to IEEE Spectrum, Imahara earned certification in the late 1990s to operate and maintain R2-D2 units used for rereleases of the prequel films, and helped update aging technology in the robots. That is a more precise description than saying he built R2-D2: the character and its many physical versions were not his sole creation.
#1 Best Overall
IEEE Spectrum also recounts that Imahara wore the C-3PO suit for promotional licensing work. It was another example of his willingness to move between engineering and performance, while his technical work remained the foundation of his career.
Deadblow and the hands-on world of BattleBots
In 1999, Imahara entered BattleBots with Deadblow, a combat robot he designed with help from Tory Belleci and Adam Savage. Its hammer weapon made engineering tangible: a machine had to be designed, built and controlled under the rough conditions of competition. Imahara competed through 2002 and returned to the franchise as a judge in 2018.
Deadblow also linked Imahara to the collaborators he would later work alongside on MythBusters. It showed the same habits that defined his television engineering: prototyping, solving practical problems and making a complex machine understandable to an audience.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
What Imahara did on MythBusters
Imahara joined MythBusters in 2005 as a member of its Build Team, alongside Kari Byron and Belleci. Calling him a cohost captures his public-facing role, but not the full job. He designed and built robots, worked with computers and electronics, and helped create the apparatus that allowed the team to test claims in the physical world.
That work began before cameras could capture a result. A question had to become a workable experiment: What needed to be measured? What could be controlled? How could a device produce a repeatable result and do so safely? The equipment also had to make the test observable on screen. Imahara’s experience with animatronics and robotics made him well suited to this translation from an abstract claim to a functioning setup.
The show investigated questions ranging from whether a cellphone could bring down a plane to whether a car dropped from 1,219 metres could fall faster than a speeding car, and whether bullets could bend around obstacles as they do in Wanted. These were team efforts, not individual feats by Imahara; his contribution was among the engineering and building work that made the tests possible. For viewers, seeing that process helped make experimentation itself part of the entertainment.
Rank #3
- Factory sealed DVD
After roughly nine years on the series, Imahara left in 2014 alongside Byron and Belleci. Contemporary coverage attributed the trio’s departure largely to contract negotiations, though the available account is secondary. The departure did not end their collaboration.
White Rabbit Project and later engineering
In 2016, Imahara, Byron and Belleci reunited for Netflix’s White Rabbit Project. The series examined inventions, technology, historical events and heists. It had a different format from MythBusters, but again put the trio’s curiosity and practical skills in front of viewers. It was a short-lived, single-season project rather than a long-running successor.
Imahara continued working in engineering and effects. In 2017 he became lead mechanical designer for Spectral Motion and consulted for Walt Disney Imagineering. One project was Stuntronics, animatronic acrobatic robots developed for theme-park use. The work extended a career-long interest in making mechanical systems move convincingly and reliably, this time in an entertainment setting built for visitors rather than film cameras.
Rank #4
He also appeared in projects including Star Trek Continues, Home of the Future and Star Trek Renegades, and remained connected to robotics competitions as a BattleBots judge. Across these projects, engineering and performance were not competing identities; they were complementary skills.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Teaching engineering by making it visible
Imahara’s educational contribution was concrete as well as televisual. In 2003, he published Kickin’ Bot: An Illustrated Guide to Building Combat Robots. He mentored the Biomechs #84 robotics team at Richmond High School in California and participated in FIRST Robotics-related mentoring. These activities put practical engineering within reach of students who might otherwise encounter it only as an abstract subject.
Recommended Free Tools
His television work offered a related lesson to a much larger audience. The appeal was not simply that machines worked—or sometimes failed—but that viewers could watch people pose a question, build a test and learn from what happened. Imahara helped make the technical labor legible without pretending that every experiment had a simple answer. IEEE colleagues also remembered his ability to communicate technical challenges to people outside engineering.
Best Value
After his death, friends and family established the Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation to support emerging talent and historically marginalized young people in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. The foundation’s official site is grantimaharafoundation.org. Its broad educational purpose continues the mentoring and public communication associated with Imahara; specific current programs or eligibility details should be confirmed directly with the foundation.
Remembering Grant Imahara
Discovery and the Science Channel marked Imahara’s death with tribute programming in July 2020. Discovery’s marathon aired July 17 and Science Channel’s on July 18, including episodes of MythBusters and White Rabbit Project, as well as Killer Robots: Robo Games 2011. Those broadcasts were a moment of remembrance, not a current schedule; SYFY Wire reported on the tributes at the time.
Imahara’s legacy is clearest in the range of work he actually did: testing audio equipment, maintaining film robots, building a combat machine, designing experimental apparatus, mentoring students and explaining engineering on television. He helped audiences see that the spectacle of a machine is often the visible end of careful, collaborative problem-solving—and made that process worth watching.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
