Early life and career

Yahoo Serious was born in Cardiff, City of Lake Macquarie in the Hunter Region, New South Wales, Australia. He went to Glendale East Public School and Cardiff High School, then worked as a tyre fitter to pay for his tuition at the National Art School in Sydney. After being expelled, Serious co-wrote, co-produced, and directed his first film at age 21, a documentary called Coaltown which explored the social and political history of coal mining. The following year, his television series Lifestyle won the Australian Penguin Award for Best Educational Documentary.

In 1988, Serious co-wrote, produced, and directed Young Einstein, an intentionally inaccurate movie portraying Albert Einstein as a young farmer in Tasmania who derives the formula E=mc² while trying to discover a means of creating beer bubbles, splitting the lager atom in the process. After leaving the apple isle for Sydney on the mainland to patent his discovery, he goes on to develop rock music and surfing, romances Marie Curie, and saves Paris from an atomic bomb. The film's popularity propelled Serious to stardom which saw him appear on the cover of Time and Mad magazines, and even get his own prime time slot on MTV. The movie was a success in Australia but a critical and commercial flop in the United States.

In 1993, Serious released his next film, Reckless Kelly, a satire about a modern descendant of the notorious Australian bank robber Ned Kelly who also becomes a movie star in Hollywood. While Reckless Kelly was a hit in Australia, it failed outside of the country and ended Serious's bid for mainstream international popularity. In 2000, Yahoo Serious released his third film Mr. Accident, about the most accident-prone man in the world. Like Reckless Kelly, the film was not a commercial success.

Yahoo Serious received an honorary doctorate from the University of Newcastle in 1996.

Serious was a guest celebrity for the opening of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He is a director of The Kokoda Track Foundation.

Personal life

Shortly after the production of Young Einstein, Yahoo Serious married Lulu Pinkus. Their relationship ended in 2007.

Lawsuit against Yahoo!

In August 2000, Yahoo Serious tried to sue the search engine Yahoo! for trademark infringement. The case was thrown out because Serious could not prove that he sells products or services under the name "Yahoo" and therefore could not prove that he suffered harm or confusion due to the search engine.

Filmography

• Young Einstein (1988) - Actor, director, writer and producer
• Reckless Kelly (1993) - Actor, director, writer and producer
• Mr. Accident (2000) - Actor, director, writer and producer

As himself

• Cinema 3 - (1990) - TV series, 1 episode
• Waltzing Matilda: The Song That Shaped a Nation (1995) - Documentary
• In the Cannes (2007) - Short documentary film

[ Source: Wikipedia ]