- Born
- Birth nameGreg Gomez Pead
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Yahoo Serious (born Greg Gomez Pead) became one of Australia's most successful independent conceptual artists and filmmakers of the 1980s and 1990s. Considered the first Australian to write, produce, direct and star in a major motion picture. He legally changed his name to "Yahoo Serious" in 1980 before his sudden fame.
Born July 27, 1953 in New South Wales, Australia, Greg grew up near Newcastle and worked as a tyre fitter for a time to get through art school, but was eventually expelled from the school. Soon after he started combining his artistic talents with absurdist comedy and earned a lot of skeptical looks along the way.
At age 21, Yahoo independently wrote, produced, directed and filmed "Coaltown," a documentary tracing the socio-political history of coal mining. It was released in 1977. The following year he won the National Award for Best Australian Educational Documentary for his TV series "Lifestyle." After extensive traveling throughout Asia, Europe and America, he began writing, directing and performing in experimental comedy and became the first Australian to do so in a major motion picture.
This led to the spectacular success of his first weird, skimpily-budgeted vehicle Young Einstein (1988), the story of a young Tasmanian farmer who discovers rock music along with the theory of relativity. Blending political/social satire, silliness and slapstick with eye-popping visuals, he hit the jackpot with young audiences. Grossing over $100 million, he instantly branched out internationally, hitting all the popular talk shows and even making the cover of TIME magazine (February, 1989). Audiences took a fascination to his unique cinematic style. True to form, Serious involved himself in practically every detail of the making of the movie, from creating the original concept and script through incorporating the visual design and music soundtrack and performing all his own stunts.
Following this crazy but fantastic roller coaster ride, Yahoo was not able to produce a follow up movie soon enough and quickly became yesterday's news. Coming out five years later, Reckless Kelly (1993) was the story of a Robin Hood-like, motorcycle-riding robber who becomes a Hollywood movie star. While it matched his first film in unconventional silliness, it would not match its box office success or popularity and it disappeared rather quickly. He worked in tandem with his one-time wife, producer Lulu Pinkus, on all three films. They divorced in 2007.
Yahoo's third movie, Mr. Accident (2000), which centered around the most accident-prone man in the world, was also a commercial failure while still finding a cult following. Receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Newcastle in 1996, he was a guest for the opening of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
While no projects have occurred since his third film, who knows what's up this unique artist's sleeve next. An inveterate traveler and surfer living on the beaches of New South Wales, Yahoo is a board member of the Kokoda Track Foundation, a humanitarian aid organization focused on the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea. The Foundation provides education, health, and community services as well as disaster relief and tourism plans.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpouseLulu Pinkus(January 22, 1989 - 2007) (divorced)
- ParentsTerry PeadAlice Pead
- Retired from acting and is heavily involved with philanthropy, becoming a founding director of the Kokoda Track Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides Papua New Guineans with education and healthcare services while promoting the Kokoda story. (2017).
- In followup to his first movie success, Yahoo was featured on the cover of both TIME and MAD magazines, wrote and starred in his own series of MTV shows in New York and, as a satire on TV reporting, interviewed himself on "60 Minutes."
- Worked as a tire fitter to pay his way through the National Art School.
- He later wagered a trademark battle against the major Internet portel "Yahoo! "in 2000. The case was quickly thrown out because Serious could not prove that he sells products or services under the name "Yahoo" or suffered harm or confusion due to the search engine.
- Made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Newcastle in 1996 for his contribution to cinema arts.
- Each day there are a million choices to be made starting with what you put on your toast. You're born with a name but so what?. You can choose every other aspect of your life, so why not your name?
- We often lose our way in the movie industry, in as much as we forget that it's an art form and originality is important. It's important not to just pick up a book and make it into a movie or do do sequel II, III, IV and V. Different is what people respond to. They go, "Oh good! I can go and see something new!" I hate sequels because they are always done for the wrong reason. That is, they're always done for the same reason: money.
- The pursuit, I think, is to always do what you want and happiness and success will be a part of that. People often chase money and that's the wrong thing to chase because it will always go away from you and drag happiness with it. But if you allow money and success to be a by-product of what you want to do, then you'll be happy.
- A smile is always double-edged in that it can be either happy or aggressive. Animals when they bare their teeth they're attacking. When we bare out teeth we're being warm and smiling. My comedy tends to go to the human side of the smile.
- Find your own specific voice in filmmaking and go for it. Either people will get it or they won't and that's what it's all about.
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