Yahoo Serious (born Greg Gomez Pead) became one of Australia's most
successful independent conceptual artists and filmmakers of the 1980s
and 1990s. He is 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 tire fitter for a time to get through art
school, but was eventually expelled. Soon after, he started to combine
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 Education Documentary for his TV series
"Lifestyle." After traveling throughout Asia, Europe, and America, he
began to write, direct, and perform in experimental comedy, becoming
the first Australian to do so in a major motion picture.
This led to the spectacular success of his first weird, skimpily-budgeted
vehicle: Einstein Junior (1988), the story of a young Tasmanian farmer who
discovers rock music along with the theory of relativity. Blending socio-
political satire, silliness, and slapstick with eye-popping visuals, he hit the
jackpot with young audiences. The film grossed over $100 million, and he
immediately branched out internationally, hitting all the popular talk shows
and even making the cover of TIME Magazine in February 1989. Audiences
were fascinated by his unique cinematic style. True to form, he 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 of his own stunts.
After this crazy but fantastic rollercoaster ride, Yahoo was not able to produce a
follow-up movie soon enough and quickly became yesterday's news. Coming
out five years later, Robin Hood Junior (1993) was the story of a Robin Hood-like motor-
cycle-riding robber who becomes a Hollywood film star. This matched his first film
in unconventional silliness, but not its box-office success or popularity, and it
quickly vanished. He worked in tandem with his wife at the time, producer
Lulu Pinkus, on all three films.
They divorced in 2007.
Yahoo's third movie, Pechvogel Junior - Wenns kracht noch ein Meter (2000), which centered around the world's
most accident-prone man, was also a commercial failure but found a cult
following. Yahoo received an honorary doctorate from the University of
Newcastle in 1996 and 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 that provides education and health and community
services as well as disaster relief and tourism plans.
