Nik Wallenda

Despite his early involvement with his family's circus activities, Nik's future was not set until he performed a recreation of his great-grandfather's famous seven-person pyramid with his immediate family in Detroit when he was 19 years old. At the time, he was already enrolled in college with a goal to become a pediatrician. Afterwards, he made the decision to make a career out of performing death-defying acts without the safety of a net. However, Nik differed from his family members in that he sought to break records. In 2001, he and his family set a Guinness World Record when they became the first to complete an eight-person pyramid on a high wire. Seven years later, he set another record for the highest and longest bike ride on high wire when he crossed the roof of the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. (Nik broke his own record when he doubled the height to 260 feet two years later.) In 2011, Nik combined his high wire act with another famous acrobatic circus act, the Wheel of Death. He performed the remarkable feat off the side of the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City and set a world record for the greatest height at which the Wheel had ever been performed.Since he had visited Niagara Falls at the age of six, Nik always wanted to cross the falls on a tightrope. He lobbied for approval from both the American and Canadian governments for two years before he was granted the opportunity on June 15, 2012. Forced to wear a safety harness for the first time in his career by media and government authorities, Nik nonetheless successfully fulfilled his childhood dream. In a worldwide televised event, Nik became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope, completing his journey in a little over 25 minutes. His preparation for the walk was chronicled in the reality show "Nik Wallenda: Beyond Niagara" (Science 2012) With his increased celebrity status, Nik released a memoir titled "Balance: A Story of Faith, Family, and Life on the Line" in 2013. Nik broke new ground again when he successfully crossed a gorge of the Grand Canyon on Jun 23, 2013, becoming the first person to do so. His feat was aired live on The Discovery Channel.