Mehgan Heaney-Grier (born ''Mehgan Renee Heaney''; August 26, 1977) is an American champion freediver,

fashion model A model is a person with a role either to display commercial products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as an artist's model. Modelling ("modeling" in American English) entails using one's body to represent someone ...

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, conservationist, and TV personality.

Early life

Heaney-Grier was born in

Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...

to Bill and Renee Heaney. Her parents divorced when she was six years old. When she was eleven years old her mother remarried to Nelson Grier and in the summer of 1989, Heaney-Grier, along with her sister Erin, mother and new stepfather moved to the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami a ...

. When she was 16 years old, she legally changed her last name to Heaney-Grier.

Freediving

In 1996 at the age of 18 Heaney-Grier established the first constant weight

free-diving Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on apnea, breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba set, scuba gear. Besides the ...

record in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

with a dive to on a single breath of air. The following year she beat her own record with a dive to , When she set her second US record, the women's world record for free diving was . In 1998 Heaney-Grier captained the first United States Freediving Team to compete in the World Cup Freediving Championships held in Sardinia, Italy. In 2000, Heaney-Grier was inducted as part of the inaugural roster into the Women Divers Hall of Fame.

Modeling

Heaney-Grier has modeled for, and been featured in, numerous catalogs and magazines including ''People'', ''Outside'', ''Life'', ''Vogue Japan'', ''Abercrombie & Fitch''. She has also been a public relations ambassador for

Omega Omega (, ; uppercase Ω, lowercase ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numerals, Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value ...

Watches.

Television

In the late 1990s, Heaney-Grier partnered with her diving trainers, Manny Puig and Mark Rackley (who was at the time also Heaney-Grier's boyfriend), filming underwater encounters with animals such as alligators and sharks. Rackley had worked as a spearfisherman and underwater videographer, and Puig had experience as an animal handler on movie sets and had learned how to ride and handle alligators in their environment. Together with Heaney-Grier, they formed a company named ''Extreme Encounters'', and the footage they produced led to the

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel focusing on the animal kingdom owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1 ...

series titled ''Extreme Contact''. The 20-episode series featured the trio in cage-free encounters with sharks, alligators and other aquatic wildlife. They also worked on a USA Network one-hour special titled "Deep Diver: Tiger Shark Odyssey". In 2002, Heaney-Grier went on to other projects. In 1999 Heaney-Grier had a guest-starring role as a free-diver on an episode of

Baywatch ''Baywatch'' is an American Drama (film and television), drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz ...

, and a starring role on a UPN movie of the week, ''Avalon:Beyond the Abyss'', produced by

Viacom Productions Viacom Productions (formerly Viacom Enterprises) was a television production arm of Viacom. Viacom Enterprises was also a movie producer, and a sports producer. The division was active from 1971 until 2004, when the company was folded into Par ...

. Heaney-Grier has been a featured guest on the

Late Show with David Letterman ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production com ...

, London's

TFI Friday ''TFI Friday'' (Thank Four it's Friday) is an entertainment show that was broadcast on Channel 4 television in the United Kingdom. It was produced by Ginger Productions, written by Danny Baker, and hosted by Chris Evans, for the first five ...

, Primetime Live with

Anderson Cooper Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator who anchors the CNN news broadcast show ''Anderson Cooper 360°''. In addition to his duties at CNN, Cooper serves as a correspondent for ''6 ...

and

Ripley's Believe it or Not ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals with bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' ...

. Heaney-Grier also hosted ''Saturn's Gravity Files'', covering the Gravity Games in 2004, and the ''Mad Fin Shark Series'' for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

in 2008. In 2015 Heaney-Grier co-starred as a member of a 5-person exploration team on the reality show '' Treasure Quest: Snake Island'', which documents the search for the legendar
Treasure of the Trinity
on Snake Island, Brazil.

Stunt work

In 2003, Heaney-Grier was sought by the director of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,

Gore Verbinski Gregor Justin "Gore" Verbinski (born March 16, 1964) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for directing ''Mouse Hunt'', '' The Ring'', the first 3 ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' films, and '' Rango''. For '' ...

, to perform an underwater stunt for

Keira Knightley Keira Christina Knightley ( ; born 26 March 1985) is an English actress. Known for her work in independent films and Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters, particularly Historical drama, period dramas, she has received List of awards and no ...

.Shine, T.M. "Water Woman: Meet Meghan Heaney-Grier: model athlete, mermaid". citylinkmagazine.com Heaney-Grier has also performed underwater stunts, including

scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...

, free diving and working with sharks, as a stunt double for

Jessica Alba Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her acting career at age 13 in ''Camp Nowhere'', followed up by ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'' (both 1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as ...

and Ashley Scott in Into the Blue, and for actress

Olivia Wilde Olivia Wilde (born Olivia Jane Cockburn, , March 10, 1984) is an American actress and director. She played Thirteen (House), Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series ''House (TV series), House'' (2007–2012), and appeared ...

in Turistas.

Other work

Heaney-Grier was featured in the books ''A Family of Women'' by Carolyn Jones. and ''Freedive!'' by Terry Maas and David Sipperly,

Personal life

Heaney-Grier married Silas Binkley on June 6, 2010. For seven years she has been the guardian of a rescued wolf-dog hybrid named ''Rontu'', and they are in the process of becoming a registered team for

animal-assisted therapy Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is an alternative or complementary type of therapy that includes the use of animals in a treatment. The goal of this animal-assisted intervention is to improve a patient's social, emotional, or cognitive functioning ...

work. Heaney-Grier graduated from the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

in 2011 with both a B.A. degree in

Ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

and

Evolutionary Biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...

and a B.A. in

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

.https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehganheaneygrier They have one child together, Cash, born 2013.

References

External links

Official Site for Mehgan Heaney-Grier
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heaney-Grier, Mehgan 1977 births Sportspeople from Minneapolis American freedivers American conservationists American film actresses American television actresses Female models from Minnesota Living people Women Divers Hall of Fame