Michael R. Cusack is an Australian animator, writer, producer, director, musician, and voice actor. He is known as the co-creator of the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (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 representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

animated series ''

Smiling Friends ''Smiling Friends'' is an adult animation, adult animated television series created by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack (animator), Michael Cusack for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim, which revolves around the surreal misadv ...

'' (2022–present), in which he voiced the characters Pim, Allan, and various others. He is also the creator of the Adult Swim animated series '' YOLO'' (2020–present) and the

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

animated sitcom '' Koala Man'' (2023).

Early life

Cusack was born and raised in

Dapto, New South Wales Dapto is a suburb of City of Wollongong, Wollongong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the western side of Lake Illawarra and covering . As at the , the suburb had a population of 10,954. History The name Dapto i ...

, and later moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Career

Cusack became interested in animation in his 20s and taught himself

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...

using online tutorials. He uploaded his content to his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel and

Newgrounds Newgrounds is an American entertainment website founded by Tom Fulp in 1995 and owned by Newgrounds.com, Inc. The site hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and ...

account. He created and portrayed Lucas the Magnificent, a parody of

New Atheist New Atheism is a perspective shared by some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries, intolerant of superstition, religion, and irrationalism. New Atheists advocate the antitheist view that the ...

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

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, beginning in 2014; he later stated that the character led to him meeting and befriending American animator Zach Hadel, as Lucas the Magnificent stated that he wanted Hadel to animate the intro of Lucas' potential

Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...

show. They began to collaborate online, then later in person when Cusack traveled to meet Hadel 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 had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

. Cusack wrote, directed, animated, produced, and starred in the ''

Rick and Morty ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated science fiction Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The series follows the misadvent ...

'' special episode '' Bushworld Adventures'', a parody of the series that aired on Adult Swim in 2018 as part of the network's

April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. ...

tradition. The success of ''Bushworld Adventures'' led him to create '' YOLO'' and ''

'' for the network, the latter alongside Hadel. He also voiced Knifey in the video game '' High on Life'', Nugget in the television film ''The Paloni Show Halloween Special'', and

Mammon Mammon (Aramaic: מָמוֹנָא, māmōnā) in the New Testament is commonly thought to mean money, material wealth, or any entity that promises wealth, and is associated with the greedy pursuit of gain. The Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of ...

in the online series ''

Helluva Boss ''Helluva Boss'' is an American adult animated musical black comedy web series created by Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano. It revolves around the misadventures of the employees of I.M.P., a company in Hell that offers hitman services in the real ...

''.

Personal life

Cusack continues to reside in

although he regularly divides his time between Melbourne and

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, U.S.

Filmography

Television

Video games

Web

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cusack, Michael Australian animators Australian male voice actors Australian surrealist artists Australian YouTubers Australian expatriate male actors in the United States People from Wollongong Comedy YouTubers Living people Web series producers YouTube animators Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian male actors