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Kari Elizabeth Byron is a San Francisco-based television host and artist, best known for her featured role on the Discovery Channel show MythBusters.
On MythBusters, Byron and fellow "Build Team" members Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara assist co-hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman in testing the plausibility of various myths, and also host their own segments. She became involved in the show after persistently showing up at Hyneman's M5 Industries workshop in a desire to get hired by his company. On her first day as a paid employee, she was asked by Hyneman and MythBusters producer Peter Rees to help out with the "vacuum plane toilet" myth, and she was asked to model her buttocks for a cast. She and the other "Build Team" members were given a more prominent role beginning with the show's second season. Not having had a long history in show business, Byron at first found it difficult to act naturally with this more visible position but gradually became more accustomed to it.[4]
During the second half of the 2009 season, Byron was on maternity leave from the show, and she was temporarily replaced by Jessi Combs.[5]
Kari now also has her own show Head Rush on the Science Channel as well, geared towards science education for children and teens.
Art and sculpting are important aspects of her life, and she has claimed that she creates some form of art every day, stating, "I would go crazy if I didn't." Some of her preferred sculpting materials are polymer clay, various found objects, acrylic gouache, wood and metals. Byron showcases some of her art on her personal website,[6] and photography from her public exhibit debut Stray Doll in September 2004 is available at Anno Domini.[7] She believes being an artist is a hard career to choose, but has found inspiration in artists such as various SECCA award winners in the past. Preferring to make her audience think, she has had the following to say about her art:
Following the success of MythBusters, she still makes sculptures, but she no longer displays them in exhibitions. She felt exposing her inner self through art exhibitions could conflict with the success of MythBusters, with visitors approaching her being more interested in talking about the show than her art. She has also expressed actually enjoying the freedom of working only for herself in this way.[8]
Byron graduated from Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, California and studied film and sculpture at San Francisco State University, graduating magna cum laude in May 1998 with a B.A. degree.[6] Byron spent the following year backpacking, primarily in South Asia, including the Himalayas, and was also involved in a number of art projects.[9]
Byron is a vegetarian, a fact referred to on occasion on MythBusters where she has been visibly uncomfortable when experiments have called for the use of animal remains.[10]
She is married to artist Paul Urich.[3] The couple have a daughter, born on June 28, 2009.[11]
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