MythBusters: 10 Things You Never Knew About The Main Cast

The tragic passing of Grant Imahara has led fans to remember how awesome and fun a show that Mythbusters was. Though the show has been off the air since 2014, it remains popular in re-runs on the Discovery Channel and in the hearts and minds of fans everywhere.

It’s also a good time to appreciate all the cast members from the show. Each member of the Mythbusting team was smart and capable and had a life outside of proving things wrong (or just blowing things up). Here are ten things you never knew about the main cast of the Mythbusters.

10 Jamie Hyneman

Jamie Hyneman is the laconic co-host of the show, alongside Adam Savage. Known for his distinctive walrus-mustache and calm, cool, and collected demeanor, Hyneman brought a grounded (and skeptical) perspective to the show’s many challenges.

An accomplished inventor and engineer in his own right, Hyneman is one of the designers behind the Wavecam. This aerial robotic system works on a cable and is often used by swimmers and surfers (and might be useful in a future Jaws movie).

9 Adam Savage

Adam Savage is the polar opposite of Jamie Hyneman. Enthusiastic, energetic, and optimistic, he brought a can-do spirit to the show that proved infectious for fans.

Adam Savage also brought a huge love of film with him, which is no surprise as he worked at ILM in San Francisco on numerous films, including the Star Wars prequels. Savage worked on Attack of the Clones, building models for the film, as he did on many other productions, including Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

8 Tory Belleci

Another ILM transplant, Tory Belleci worked on the Star Wars prequels as well. He built models for the pod race sequence in The Phantom Menace, as well as the Trade Federation battleship which blew up at the end of the movie.

Blowing things up was basically Belleci’s department on the show. Belleci often took the point on stunts and builds that involved any kind of fire or explosive (which was a lot of them) and he earned a little bit of a daredevil status.

7 Christine Chamberlain

Christine Chamberlin was one of the ‘mythterns’ – a mythbusting intern – who worked on the show over the course of the series. Chamberlin actually earned the opportunity to take part in the show through a unique contest promoted by the Discovery Channel during the breakout first season of the show.

Chamberlin won the contest and joined the crew in season two. She primarily assisted Adam Savage and Jaime Hyneman in their builds – which got bigger and bigger all the time – before ultimately moving on in season three.

6 Jessie Nelson

Jessie Nelson, or Jess as she was known on the show, was another essential mythtern who joined the series in 2006. Her first episode featured one of the show’s more complicated challenges: recreating the fabled Archimedes’ Death Ray.

Jess appeared in numerous specials over the years after that but never became a full-fledged member of the team. Her signature contribution is a big one though: as Adama Savage threw up after going around and around in a whirlpool, she quipped, “Smells like pizza.”

5 Scottie Chapman

Scottie Chapman went by the awesome handle “Mistress of Metal” while she was on the show (just briefly – she left after the third season). Her extensive tattoos also once lent themselves to busting a myth (kind of like on Blindspot).

Chapman has had a pretty extensive and diverse career, working in carpentry and testing video-games, but the coolest thing about her might be that she has played bass guitar in a number of punk bands, including the intriguingly titled Wizards of Ozzie.

4 Kari Byron

Kari Byron was one of the trinity who formed the Build Team on the show. Her proficiency with model-making (and propensity to crash things, which went back to her childhood when she used dolls as crash-test dummies), made her natural fit for the show.

It was Bryon’s model-making skills that got her the opportunity with Mythbusters. She worked for M5 Industries, Savage’s company, where she also worked as a toy-sculptor, which may be of interest to fans of toys so big they’re mythic.

3 Buster

While not an official member of the cast – which, thank goodness because of welfare laws – Buster earned his spot on the team. Boy, did he ever. Buster achieved instant fame by being the test dummy – sacrifice – for the exploding toilet stunt in the show’s first season.

Buster began life as a Hybrid II crash test dummy developed by General Motors in 1972. These dummies were intended to study impacts and minimize human injuries. His work saved lives, but maybe kind of contributed to the escalation of car carnage in franchises like The Fast and the Furious.

2 Jessi Combs

Someone who loved racing was Mythbuster Jessi Combs. Tragically, she passed away in 2019 while driving a jet-powered high-speed race car while attempting to set a new four-wheel land speed record. The Guinness Book of Records awarded her the record this year.

Combs stepped in for Kari Byron when she went on maternity leave from the series in 2009 and helped out until Byron came back. She was an avid racer and metal fabricator who also co-hosted the show Xtreme 4X4.

1 Grant Imahara

Grant Imahara was the nerd soul of Mythbusters, who approached every myth and challenge with the same passion and energy. He worked at ILM alongside Adam Savage and Tory Belleci working on numerous movies, including the Star Wars prequels.

His interest in robotics was well-known, first appearing on TV on the BattleBots series. At the time of his death, he was working on a life-size Baby Yoda animatronic puppet of his own design. Imahara chronicled the progress of the Baby Yoda on Twitter.

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