Kari Byron

KARI BYRON BIOGRAPHY
She’s that adorable and friendly redheaded assistant on the popular Discovery Channel television program Mythbusters. But besides being a more or less reality TV star, few may know that Kari Byron is also a prominent artist based in San Francisco, California.

Kari Bryon was born on December 8, 1974, in San Francisco, and after high school attended San Francisco State University, majoring in sculpture and film. In May of 1998, she graduated with honors with her Bachelor of Arts degree.

After college graduation, Byron was involved in working on several notable art projects, traveled to Southeast Asia to go backpacking, and worked various odd jobs, such as a secret shopper for a known liquor company.

However, Byron remained a relatively unknown personality until she was offered the chance to regularly appear on the popular show Mythbusters, a reality-based TV program focusing on building projects to scientifically and actively test (and ultimately, to disprove) popular myths.

The show stars Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage as the hosts. After Byron repeatedly showed up at Hyneman’s workshop looking for a job, Peter Rees, the show’s producer, asked her to help out with a particular project—regarding the vacuum plane toilet myth—which led to more guest appearances and then regular appearances in the show’s second season. Byron has since been mostly working with Mythbusters team members Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci.

However, Byron maintains that she is truly an artist at heart; particularly, through the art form of sculpting, in which she most often uses materials such as polymer clay, metals, wood, acrylic gouache, and other materials and objects.

Byron made her solo art exhibit debut, Stray Doll, in 2004 at the famous Anno Domini, a contemporary art gallery located in San Jose, California. Anno Domini was launched by graphic designers Brian Eder and Cherri Lakey, and has featured the work FriendMakers, a joint effort by artists Keith Knight, Michael Sieben, and Don Pendleton.
In June 2006, Byron was featured in a four-page spread of the American version of the popular monthly men’s magazine FHM, founded by Chris Astridge, and more than once, Byron has been invited by David Letterman to guest appear on his show, The Late Show with David Letterman.

Byron also has a pierced tongue, which can sometimes be seen when she’s featured on Mythbusters, and is also a vegetarian.

Byron has cited some of the SECCA (also known as the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art) award winners as the artists responsible for her inspiration.