Michael R. Cusack is an Australian animator, voice actor, photographer, writer, director, and producer. He is the co-creator and co-star, along with fellow animator

Zach Hadel Zach Hadel (born March 4, 1993), known by his pseudonym psychicpebbles, is an American animator, voice actor, Internet personality, writer, director, and storyboard artist. He and Michael Cusack (animator), Michael Cusack are co-creators of the ...

, of the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

animated series, ''

Smiling Friends ''Smiling Friends'' is an adult animated television series created by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack for Cartoon Network's night-time programming block Adult Swim, which revolves around a small company dedicated to making people smile. The pilo ...

'', and creator and star of '' YOLO'' and '' Koala Man''.

Life and career

Cusack was born in raised in

Dapto Dapto is a suburb of Wollongong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the western side of Lake Illawarra and covering an area 7.15 square kilometres in size. As at the , the suburb had a population of 10,730. History ...

, a suburb of the Australian city of

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

. He grew up watching ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

'', ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'' and ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...

''. He became interested in animation in his 20s, and taught himself

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...

using internet tutorials. Cusack uploaded his content to his

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel and

Newgrounds Newgrounds is an entertainment website and company founded by Tom Fulp in 1995. It hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and offices in Glenside, Pennsylvania. I ...

account. Cusack began to collaborate with Hadel, online at first then later in person, when Cusack traveled to meet him in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Cusack is also known for creating and portraying the fictional character Lucas the Magnificent, a parody of

New Atheist The term ''New Atheism'' was coined by the journalist Gary Wolf in 2006 to describe the positions promoted by some atheists of the twenty-first century. New Atheism advocates the view that superstition, religion and irrationalism should not si ...

" neckbeards", in live-action YouTube videos and on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, beginning in 2014. With Studio Yotta, Cusack animated a parody ''

Rick and Morty {{Infobox television , image = Rick and Morty title card (cropped).png , alt = , caption = , genre = {{Plainlist, * Animated sitcom * Adult animation * Science fiction * Black comedy * ...

'' episode, '' Bushworld Adventures'', that aired on Adult Swim on

April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...

2018. The success of ''Bushworld Adventures'' led Cusack to create ''YOLO: Crystal Fantasy'' and ''Smiling Friends'' for the network, as well as becoming a collaborator with ''Rick and Morty'' creator

Justin Roiland Mark Justin Roiland (born February 21, 1980) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known as the co-creator of Adult Swim's ''Rick and Morty'' and its subsequent Rick and Morty (franchise), franchise. H ...

, voicing characters for his video game '' High on Life'' and television film ''The Paloni Show Halloween Special''.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cusack, Michael Australian animators Australian male voice actors Australian surrealist artists Australian YouTubers Australian expatriates in the United States People from Wollongong Comedy YouTubers Living people Web series producers YouTube animators Year of birth missing (living people)