Yahoo Serious

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Australian actor, director and composer (born 1953)

title: "Yahoo Serious" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["australian-male-film-actors", "australian-film-directors", "australian-film-producers", "australian-screenwriters", "australian-male-comedians", "1953-births", "living-people", "comedians-from-new-south-wales", "english-language-film-directors", "australian-comedy-film-directors", "people-from-newcastle,-new-south-wales"] description: "Australian actor, director and composer (born 1953)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo_Serious" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian actor, director and composer (born 1953) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Yahoo Serious
caption	Serious in 1989
birth_name	Greg Pead
birth_date
birth_place	Cardiff, New South Wales, Australia
occupation
years_active	1974–2000
spouse	Lulu Serious ( – 2007)
website
signature	Yahoo Serious signature.svg
::

| name = Yahoo Serious | image = | caption = Serious in 1989 | birth_name = Greg Pead | birth_date = | birth_place = Cardiff, New South Wales, Australia | occupation = | years_active = 1974–2000 | spouse = Lulu Serious ( – 2007) | website = | signature = Yahoo Serious signature.svg}}

Yahoo Serious (born Greg Pead; born 27 July 1953) is an Australian actor. His films include the comedy films Young Einstein (1988), Reckless Kelly (1993), and Mr. Accident (2000). Serious writes, directs, produces, stars in, and has composed the scores for his movies.

Early life

Serious, born Greg Pead, was born on 27 July 1953 in Cardiff, New South Wales. He attended 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, but was expelled.

Career

After being expelled from art school, Serious co-wrote, co-produced, edited and directed at age 21 his first film, Coaltown, "with the assistance of the Australian Film Institute". Released in 1977, Coaltown explores the social and political history of coal mining.

In 1988, Serious co-wrote, produced, directed, and played the title role in Young Einstein as a young apple farmer in Tasmania who derives the formula E=mc² while trying to discover a means of creating beer bubbles, splitting the beer atom in the process. After leaving Tasmania 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 magazine and the Australian edition of Mad magazine, and get his own primetime slot on MTV. The movie was a success in Australia but a critical and commercial flop upon receiving a wide release 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, 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 outside Australia.

Serious is a director of the Kokoda Track Foundation, a humanitarian organisation focused on Papua New Guinea.

In 2019, in a rare Q&A session at Sydney's Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, Serious stated in response to a question about what he had been doing recently, “I have been writing and I hope to continue to make some more movies.”

Honours and awards

-- 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.

Personal life

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

In July 2020, Serious was evicted from his Sydney rental property and ordered to pay $15,000 in rent arrears to the landlords. Serious stated that he was unable to pay due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but was unable to substantiate this claim.

In March 2025, Serious was accused of refusing to leave the home of an elderly man who had found him homeless and sleeping in his car.

Lawsuit against Yahoo!

In August 2000, Yahoo Serious sued 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

Notes

References

Forsberg, Myra. (30 July 1989). "FILM; The Name's Serious. Yahoo Serious". [[New York Times]].
(12 October 2012). "Yahoo Serious: (author/organisation)".
"Coaltown". [[National Library of Australia]].
James, Caryn. (4 August 1989). "Review/Film; Silliness And Science That Equal One Einstein". The New York Times.
Buckmaster, Luke. (14 May 2015). "Reckless Kelly Rewatched – Yahoo Serious in Surreal and Satirical Form". [[The Guardian]].
Siklos, Richard. (29 January 2006). "When Terry Met Jerry, Yahoo!". [[New York Times]].
"August 4–6, 1989 – Weekend".
Henderson, Odie. (6 August 2014). "Summer of '89: Surely, You Can't Be Serious! Young Einstein". [[Slant Magazine]].
Buckmaster, Luke. (3 June 2019). "Forget the pyramids, the greatest mystery of our time is what happened to Yahoo Serious". The Guardian.
Vagg, Stephen. (18 August 2019). "Australian Movie Stars".
"Board".
(2019-06-03). "Forget the pyramids, the greatest mystery of our time is what happened to Yahoo Serious {{!}} Luke Buckmaster".
(19 April 1996). "Stay in Touch". [[Sydney Morning Herald]].
(16 December 2013). "Forgotten Aussie Stars: Where Are They Now".
Reines, Ros. (20 May 2007). "Serious Problems for Yahoo and Lulu". [[Sunday Telegraph]].
(2020-07-24). "Yahoo Serious evicted from Sydney home for failing to pay rent".
(2020-07-23). "Yahoo Serious evicted from Sydney home after falling $27,000 behind in rental payments".
Haigh, Joshua. (March 12, 2025). "Australian movie star Yahoo Serious hits back over home dispute".
"Yahoo Is Really Serious – Actor Sues Internet Company over Name". ''[[The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). The Daily Telegraph]]''. p. 10. Published 22 September 2001.

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