Wednesday, October 30, 2024

What Happened to Kari Byron – 2024 News and Updates

Kari Byron was undoubted part of the massive success of Discovery’s Mythbusters, which ended this spring after just over a decade on air. Alongside Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara, she helped test out some of the crazier myths the show examined. Now that the show is over, some people are wondering what happened to the host. These days, she’s on the Travel Channel, working with Belleci on Thrill Factor, a show that examines the scientific side of some of the world’s rollercoasters and other amusements.  Let’s look at her career as a whole, and see where she might go from here.

Kari Byron on MythBusters

Before finding a place on television, Byron worked as an artist, specializing in sculpture. She was born on December 18, 1974, and went to high school in Los Gatos, California. From there she went to San Francisco State University, and graduated in 1998 with a degree in film and sculpture.

Around that time, Adam Savage and Jamey Hyneman were working together on BattleBots, a Comedy Central show about the sport of robot combat. After being interviewed by Discovery about another similar show, Robot Wars, Hyneman was asked to produce a casting video for the network.

Then in 2002, the Discovery Channel became interested in a show where they would test out urban myths, movie effects tropes, and other bits of colloquial knowledge that might not be true. Hyneman was picked to be the host, but asked Savage to co-host, since Hyneman doubted if he was interesting enough to host it by himself. The show was produced out of Hyneman’s special effects workshop, M5 Industries.

When Mythbusters started, Kari Byron worked behind the scenes to help build some of the equipment Savage and Hyneman would use in the episodes. As the first season went on, her and other members of M5 Industries began to be shown in episodes. By the second season, three of Hyneman’s crew were organized as the “Build Team”: Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Scottie Chapman.

While the show received some criticism for not being entirely scientific in its approach, they did have some consistent methods. First, they would try and recreate the circumstances of a myth, frequently with Jamey and Adam, or members of the Build Team competing to see who could more accurate recreate the scenario. If this didn’t verify the myth, they would keep making their tests more absurd, until eventually they got the result they wanted – usually an explosion.

For one episode of MythBusters, Kari had herself painted in aluminium dust to test the health risks
For one episode of MythBusters, Kari had herself painted in aluminium dust to test the health risks

Throughout the show there were a number of accidents. Notably, Kari Byron and the rest of the Build Team accidentally fired a cannonball into a house, after it went over the primary target, rolled up a hill behind the shooting range, and flew over half a kilometer away.

Despite some controversy, the show had wide-reaching cultural influence, with the main hosts appearing in other TV shows, and even worked with President Barack Obama to test out a myth about an ancient laser cannon.

Through the show’s run, Kari Byron continued to make art, specifically sculptures, though after the show became more popular, she stopped having public exhibits. In 2006, she married another artist, Paul Urich. In 2009, she took maternity leave from the show to have a daughter, whom they named Stella Ruby.

Kari Byron & Tory Belleci

After returning from maternity leave, Kari Byron briefly had her own show on the Science Channel,  Head Rush. The show was an hour of new material based loosely on what was shown on MythBusters, generally emphasizing the idea that science, and a scientific approach to the world, can be fun. Hosted by Byron, the show only ran for two seasons, but continues to show up on the Science Channel occasionally. Byron also hosted two seasons of Large, Dangerous Rocket Ships for the Science Channel.

In 2012, she and Tory Belleci were in an episode of Sons of Guns, the Discovery Channel show about custom firearms manufacturers. Their guest episode retested a myth that MythBusters had done, about whether shooting a propane tank could cause an explosion. She and Belleci also worked together on the Science Channel’s Pumpkin Chunkin, an annual show that covers the World Championship Pumpkin Chunkin contest, where people each fall build machines to throw pumpkins as far as possible, using only mechanical means. (The current record for longest pumpkin chunk is 4,694 feet.)

In 2014, it was announced that MythBusters was reformatting their show,  and meant that the Build Team wouldn’t be coming back for the 13th season. The show lasted two more seasons without Grant, Tory, and Kari, before finally being cancelled.

What’s Kari Byron Doing Now In 2024 – Recent Updates

Kari Byron has appeared on television several times since Myth Busters. In 2020, she made a small appearance in Creature Features, She was later featured in an episode of the mini-documentary series Physics Girl as a former Mythbuster.

That same year, she hosted the show Crash Test World. Premiered on January 8, 2021, it follows her as she discovers how culture, technology, people, and history come together to make the world a better place. Met with mostly positive reviews, the series consisted of six episodes, all of which were released on the Science Channel.

crash test world
Kari Bryon hosted Crash Test World, which continued for six episodes on the Science Channel

Since then, she has worked on another documentary—this time a 30-minute short titled, Forward! To the Moon. More specifically, she helped narrate the series.

Aside from all that, she’s also the co-founder of EXLPLR Media, an educational streaming service that hopes to inspire, empower, and educate young people to become agents of change. As of 2024, they offer two subscription-based video and curriculum services for grade 5 to grade 12 students.

kari bryon sandman book
Kari Bryon’s signed edition of The Sandman Vol 4 “Season of Mists” ultimately sold for $280 on eBay

Earlier this summer, she also auctioned off a Sandman book signed by Neil Gaiman with the proceeds going to Girl Rising, a New York-based nonprofit that uses storytelling as a means to change the way people value girls and their education (taken from their Twitter profile).

The former Mythbusters host is also available for appearances, panels, and events, according to her official website, which you can check out here. There’s also a page for her book, Crash Test Girl, which was released back in 2018.

For those who’d like to know what else she’s up to, you can follow Kari Bryon on social media. She’s active on Twitter (@KariBryon) where she has over 501K followers and on Instagram (@therealkaribryon) where she has more than 265K followers. She also has an official Facebook page that’s updated on a regular basis.

Morgan Sennhauser
Morgan Sennhauser
Morgan Sennhauser is a thoroughbred millennial, who has focused on working against censorship and surveillance in Africa and the Middle East. Now living in North Carolina, Morgan spends his time advocating for minority groups in impoverished regions, and writing about related topics.
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7 COMMENTS

  1. Kari, Tory, and Grant have a new show on Netflix called “White Rabbit Project” where they test and rank history’s greatest (fill in the blank).
    The show is educational, family friendly, and though not as good as Mythbusters, quite entertaining.

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