Yahoo Serious (born Greg 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 changing his name to "Yahoo Serious" in 1980 before his sudden fame. He grew up near Newcastle, Australia and worked as a tire 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 wrote, produced, directed and filmed Coaltown, a documentary tracing the socio-political history of coalmining. 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. This led to spectacular success with 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. However, following this crazy rollercoaster ride, he 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), the story of a Robin Hood-like, motorcycle-riding robber who becomes a Hollywood movie star, matched his first film in unconventional silliness but not popularity and disappeared quickly. His third movie, Mr. Accident (1999), about the most accident-prone man in the world, also was a commercial disaster while still finding a cult following. Who knows what's up this unique artist's sleeve next.
Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Club gave him the Celebrated Filmmaker Award for Young Einstein. Attended Cardiff Public High School in New South Wales. Worked as a tire fitter to pay his way through the National Art School. 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." Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Club awarded him the Celebrated Filmmaker Award for Young Einstein (1989). Made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Newcastle in 1996 for his contribution to cinema arts. Some news reports have confused Yahoo Serious, whose real name is Greg Pead, with the antiques dealer in Sydney named Greg Pead who accused the former Royal butler Paul Burrell of having an affair with him in the 1980s. The two are not the same person nor are they related. 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.