Meet the Mytbusters: Jamie Hyneman

Hailing from Indiana farm country, Jamie Hyneman is a multifaceted man: wilderness survival expert, boat captain, diver, linguist, animal wrangler, machinist and cook, to name a few. His career has been equally diverse: Jamie earned a degree in Russian language and ran a sailing/diving charter business in the Caribbean for several years before he moved over to the visual-effects industry.

Once he had joined that field and had worked for several special-effects companies, Jamie found his way to Colossal Pictures’ model shop, where he managed the production of models and special effects for hundreds of commercials and movies. Then, 16 years ago, Jamie took over the shop and created M5 Industries Inc.

Jamie has worked on over 800 commercials for major automobile manufacturers, soft-drink companies (including 7-UP), athletic shoe companies (including Nike), and numerous other products. In the midst of all this activity, Jamie’s company has diversified into toy prototyping and research and development in a variety of other areas as well.

The holder of several patents and the winner of numerous industry awards, Jamie is also a long-standing Screen Actors Guild member.

Today, while MythBusters occupies the majority of Jamie’s professional activity, M5 is active mainly with developing cutting-edge technologies for a variety of industries.

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