Michael Cusack is heading to the Emmys as a nominee for Smiling Friends — despite being largely unknown outside Australia’s adult-animation fandom.
The 35-year-old animator is recognised alongside American co-creator Zach Hadel in the Outstanding Animated Program category. The award will be presented at the Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies in Los Angeles on September 5 and 6, ahead of the main Emmy telecast on September 14.
Cusack, who grew up in Wollongong and now lives in Melbourne, is returning briefly to his home city to write before travelling to Los Angeles. He said the nomination felt difficult to comprehend, particularly as he had never received a school award or been nominated for an Australian television prize.
“To be nominated for the Emmys before even being nominated for an Australian awards show feels huge, elite, almost too far,” he said. “I’m very honoured, of course, it’s very nice. But I do find it funny that I don’t even know if someone at the Logies would know who I am.”
Michael Cusack’s Australian route to the Emmys
Cusack taught himself animation after an early attempt to make a live-action film proved financially and logistically punishing. At 20, he spent $15,000 saved from working at Subway on All Night Gaming, supplemented by a $10,000 bank loan that he later repaid while washing dishes in a Queensland mining town.
The experience convinced him that animation offered a more practical way to bring his ideas to life. “I just want to draw what’s in my mind rather than having to film it,” he said.
A two-minute short made for the gaming community attracted 400,000 views within days, prompting Cusack to focus on animation. His online work, including the series Damo and Darren — also known as Ciggy Butt Brain — helped build an audience for his deliberately rough-edged style.
That approach has since taken him from YouTube to international streaming platforms. His credits include YOLO for Adult Swim, Koala Man for Hulu and Disney+, and Smiling Friends for Adult Swim and HBO Max.
Netflix has also ordered Dad’s House, an adult animated comedy created by Cusack with Danger 5 figures Dario Russo and David Ashby. The series is listed by Netflix as starring all three creators, alongside Australian performers including Felicity Ward, Michelle Brasier and Molly Daniels.
Yet Cusack says his biggest opportunities have come from the United States rather than Australia. He recalls trying to develop a project locally with Russo and Ashby, only to find broadcasters reluctant to invest in adult animation.
“I’ve given up on the Australian market,” he said. “They all said no; they had no interest. At the time, animation for them was alien. They just assumed they would license that stuff from America.”
American buyers initially wanted some of the more recognisably Australian elements softened, he said. That attitude has since changed, with Cusack describing Dad’s House as an uncompromisingly Australian production.
“There’s no compromise, no forced American characters, and I’m just so happy with the show,” he said. “We went to America and they let us do it.”
Much of his work is still produced in Australia through his partnership with Princess Pictures, whose animation arm Princess Bento helped develop YOLO and Smiling Friends. Cusack hopes that relationship can eventually support a larger domestic industry built around Australian adult animation.
“I have a crazy dream, to be almost a bit of an Australian Disney, where we have a Cusack company, we’re making Cusack shows, and it is Australian stuff, and we can do it here,” he said.
For now, recognition in the United States has arrived before fame at home. If Cusack’s ambitions are realised, he may not have to explain his name to Australian award voters for much longer.
