Biography

Denis McGrath (September 21, 1968 – March 23, 2017) was a Canadian screenwriter and producer. Born in New York City, he resided and worked in Toronto.

McGrath started his career as a TV producer at the educational network TVOntario. In 1993, he was hired by Moses Znaimer and went to work at Toronto's groundbreaking Citytv station. As a producer on the Gemini Award-winning MediaTelevision, McGrath made the program on the intersection of digital culture and marketing one of the first in Canada to maintain an email address. Between 1993 and 1997, he did over five hundred stories on the first wave of dot.com entrepreneurs, interviewing new media figures such as John Perry Barlow, Bruce Sterling, Peter Gabriel, and Nicholas Negroponte, as well as authors and TV types from P. J. O'Rourke to Chris Carter.

In 1997, McGrath signed on as the first producer for Space: The Imagination Station, Canada's Sci-Fi channel. There, he pioneered several of the station's early program segments, including a recurring comedy segment called "Conspiracy Guy". He also created and hosted the show's late-night movie show, Spacebar.

In late 2000, McGrath left Space: The Imagination Station to become a resident of the Canadian Film Centre's Prime Time TV program.

A graduate of Ryerson Polytechnic University, McGrath taught writing part-time at his alma mater between 1994–2006.

He was a regular contributor to the CBC Radio program Q and was elected to the Writers Guild of Canada Governing Council in April 2008.

In October 2017, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced that McGrath will be the posthumous recipient of its Margaret Collier Award for distinguished lifetime achievement in television writing at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards.