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 are co-creators of the Adult Swim animated serie ...

, of the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

animated series, '' Smiling Friends'', and creator and star of '' YOLO'' and ''

Koala Man ''Koala Man'' is an animated sitcom created by Michael Cusack and developed by Cusack, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit for Hulu. The series premiered on Hulu in the US and Disney+ internationally on January 9, 2023. Plot The series takes place ...

''.

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 w ...

. He grew up watching '' South Park'', ''

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 Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

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

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...

using internet tutorials. Cusack uploaded his content to his

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second most ...

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, wh ...

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 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. 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 sim ...

" 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 , creator = Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon , developer = , voices = {{plainlist, * Justin Roiland * Chris Parnell * Spencer Grammer * Sarah Chalke * Kari Wahlgren , composer = Ryan Elder , count ...

'' episode, ''

Bushworld Adventures '' Rick and Morty'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. The series follows Rick Sanchez, an alcoholic, nihilistic super-scientist, and his easily distressed grandson, Morty Smith to paral ...

'', 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 b ...

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 franchise. He voices the show's titular ...

, 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)