McGrath Service Award

In addition to being an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, mentor, and commentator, Denis McGrath was a fierce champion of Canadian television, and a relentless advocate for screenwriters. In 2015, he received the WGC’s Writers Block Award for exceptional service to writers; it was renamed the Denis McGrath Award for Service to the WGC in 2017 to honour his legacy. (The name was shortened to the McGrath Service Award in 2018.)

The McGrath Service Award is presented to writers who have demonstrated a record of exceptional service to the Writers Guild of Canada, and whose efforts have strengthened the Canadian screenwriting community as a whole. The recipient of The McGrath is determined by the Writers Guild of Canada Council.

Past recipients of the McGrath Service Award (formerly WGC Writers Block Award until 2016) are Alex Levine (2024), Michael Amo (2022), Bruce Smith (2019), Mark Ellis (2018), Andrew Wreggitt (2017), Peter Mohan (2016), Denis McGrath (2015), Maureen Parker (2014), Anne-Marie Perrotta, Simon Racioppa, and Lienne Sawatsky (2013), Charles (Chuck) Lazer (2012), Peter Grant (2011), Rebecca Schechter (2010), Karen Walton (2009), Anne MacNaughton, Jeremy Hole, and Jack Blum (2008), Sondra Kelly, and Sugith Varughese (2007), Fred Yackman (2006), Jill Golick (2005), Pete White (2004), Bill Williams (2003), and Jack Gray (2002).