Derek McGrath

Derek McGrath is a Canadian actor and writer born on June 4, 1951, in Timmins, Ontario. His Broadway career spanned from 1969 to 1972 and included appearances in Godspell and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, the latter of which marked his professional beginning in the role of Linus.

Following his stage work, McGrath built an extensive career in television. He portrayed Andy Schroeder, the character known as the would-be strangler of Diane Chambers, in Cheers, and took on the role of Oswald Valentine in Dallas. As Dr. Benjamin Jeffcoate in My Secret Identity, he earned consecutive Gemini Award nominations in 1989 and 1990 — the first for Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Continuing Dramatic Role, and the second for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series, shared with Michael O'Connell. He also appeared as Dr. Derek Hebert in Doc and as Crewman Chell in Star Trek: Voyager. During the 1970s, McGrath was a prominent presence on TVOntario educational programming, most notably Mathmakers. His recurring television roles include Anglican priest Duncan Magee in the CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie, Frank the handyman in Kim's Convenience, and Garth Harble, Animal Control Officer, in the fifth season of The Red Green Show.

McGrath has also worked in film, including a role as a mutant in the 1993 comedy Freaked. He played Buck the dog in a fantasy sequence during a second-season episode of Married... with Children and appeared as a game show host in a third-season episode of Family Matters. In 2002, he narrated the National Film Board of Canada short animated film The Hungry Squid, which won the Genie Award for Best Animated Short.

Voice work has constituted a significant portion of McGrath's career. He voices Spiff in the animated children's series Iggy Arbuckle and Melvin, the mayor of Maple Lake, in Bob & Doug. He provided the voice of Spike, Heathcliff's nemesis, in DIC's Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats, and has voiced characters in numerous other animated productions including Grossology, Pole Position, The Romance of Betty Boop, Intergalactic Thanksgiving, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Super Why!, Wayside, Ruby Gloom, Toot and Puddle, Spliced, Jane and the Dragon, and Take Me Up to the Ball Game. He voices Mr. McFeely in Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Chief Quimby in Inspector Gadget. McGrath's brother is fellow actor Doug McGrath.