Incredibly sad news is coming in today as it's now being reported that Grant Imahara has passed away. An electrical engineer and roboticist, Imahara had achieved worldwide fame on television as a MythBusters co-host for many years. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Imahara died suddenly on Monday following a brain aneurysm at the age of 49 years old. "We are heartbroken to hear this sad news about Grant. He was an important part of our Discovery family and a really wonderful man. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family," a Discovery representative said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage also addressed the news in a tweet posted to his Twitter account on Monday evening. "I'm at a loss. No words. I've been part of two big families with Grant Imahara over the last 22 years," Savage writes in the post. "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."
Grant Masaru Imahara was born on Oct. 23, 1970, in Los Angeles, California. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering at the University of Southern California before he was later hired on to work as an engineer for Lucasfilm's THX. Working with Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Imahara had worked on the visual effects for many major motion pictures. This includes The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, The Matrix sequels, and George Lucas's Star Wars prequels. With Star Wars, he was particularly involved with creating the updated R2-D2 robots to be featured in the movie trilogy.
Imahara is probably best known for his time on MythBusters, joining the Discovery series in its third season by replacing Scottie Chapman. A brilliant roboticist, Imahara's work on MythBusters saw him creating robots necessary for the show's many experiments as well as operating various machines and electronics. Imahara would remain on the series for many years before departing in 2014 along with co-hosts Kari Byron and Tory Belleci. In 2016, the trio teamed back up to host the Netflix series White Rabbit Project, a series that similarly used experiments and tests to investigate such topics as jailbreaks and superpower technology.
There are several other places where you may have seen Imahara. To further utilize his expertise, Imahara has also appeared on shows like Battlebots, Eureka, and the web series The Guild. He also played Mr. Sulu in the web series Star Trek Continues and appeared as Lt. Masaru in the fan film Star Trek Renegades. He can also be seen in the 2015 horror-comedy sequel Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! and once built a robot sidekick for Craig Ferguson featured on The Late Late Show.
Imahara is survived by his longtime girlfriend, Jennifer Newman, who tweeted a heartbreaking post in the wake of Imahara's death. Including photos of the two together, she writes: "I haven't found the words. I don't know if I'll be able to. I lost a part of my heart and soul today. He was so generous and kind, so endlessly sweet and so loved by his incredible friends. I feel so lucky to have known him, to have loved & been loved by him. I love you, honey." Our thoughts and condolences go out to her at this incredibly painful time. Truly a one of a kind person like no other, Imahara will certainly be missed. May he rest in peace. This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.