Writers
Corner Gas Animated garners 5 LEO Award nominations!
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Corner Gas Animated garners 5 LEO Award nominations!
The Corner Gas Animated team are honoured to have been nominated for five LEO awards! The nominations are:
Best Animation Program or Series
Best Screenwriting, Animation Program or Series
Brent Butt, “Drone or Dumber”
Andrew Carr, “One Flu Over My Dead Body”
Best Musical Score, Animation Program or Series – Craig Northey, “Dream Waiver”
Voice Performance, Animation Program or Series – Lorne Cardinal, “Anger Games”
The LEO Awards are postponed and will not be hosting events this June due to Covid-19. Details on the 2020 LEO Awards are to be announced shortly on their website.
Dylan Wertz
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Dylan Wertz
Originally hailing from Leader, Saskatchewan, Dylan Wertz is an award-winning writer who has written for some of the biggest series in the country, including “InSecurity,” “renegadepress.com,” “Hiccups,” and all installments of Corner Gas. He is a Capricorn, enjoys the scent of vanilla, and lives in Vancouver with his wife and two rotten kids.
Mike McPhaden
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Mike McPhaden
Mike McPhaden is a writer and actor who got his start doing sketch comedy and improv with Winnipeg’s “Higher Than the Ground.” He trained as an actor at York University, and has appeared in many roles on stage and screen. After finding success as a Dora Award-winning playwright, he graduated from the CFC’s Prime Time TV Program. TV writing credits include “How to Be Indie,” Men With Brooms, “Seed,” “Spun Out,” “Insecurity,” “Degrassi,” as well as animated fare such as “Rusty Rivets” and “Inspector Gadget.” Most recently, Mike adapted two Gordon Korman novels into movies for YTV: This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall (co-written with Adam Barken) and The Wizzle War.
Norm Hiscock
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Norm Hiscock
Norm is one of Canada’s most successful Writer-Producers. Select credits include “Brooklyn 99,” “Parks & Recreation,” “Saturday Night Live,” “King of the Hill,” “Kids in the Hall,” and Corner Gas.
Diana Frances
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Diana Frances
Diana Frances is an award-winning improviser, comedy writer and an alumnus of the CFC Primetime Television Writing Program.
As well as writing for Corner Gas Animated, Diana has written for the 2017 Just for Laughs Galas (Jane Krakowski and Laverne Cox), “The Beaverton,” “Still Standing,” “The SmartAssociates,” “The Irrelevant Show,” “The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos,” and “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.” She has also written for multiple awards shows including The Scotiabank Giller Prize, The Banff World Media Festival Rockie Awards, The Toronto ACTRA Awards, The Director’s Guild of Canada Awards and many more.
Diana won the 2017 Writer’s Guild of Canada ‘Sondra Kelly Award’ for her original comedy, Given Up, all about her gong-show life with adoption. She’s also a really good parallel parker.
Josh Gal
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Josh Gal
Andrew Carr
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Andrew Carr
Andrew Carr has been a part of the Corner Gas franchise from the beginning. He worked as a writer and story editor for the live action series, a co-writer for the movie and now a supervising producer for the animated series.
Originally from Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Andrew’s career in comedy began in stand-up comedy where he performed in clubs and corporate events across Canada and the United States of America. He also made numerous appearances on television and events such as the Montreal “Just For Laughs” Comedy Festival and the Vancouver Comedy Festival.
Andrew has garnered numerous writing awards and nominations over the years including two Canadian Comedy awards and a Leo award. His other writing credits include being Executive Story Editor for “Little Mosque On The Prairie,” Supervising Producer for “Hiccups,” and Senior Story Editor for “InSecurity.”
Andrew makes his home in Greater Vancouver where he continues to write and develop shows for film and television.
Brent Butt
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Brent Butt
Brent Butt was born and raised in the small farming community of Tisdale, Saskatchewan (population 3000). He discovered early that being funny was a good way to get attention. He decided he was going to become a comedian when he was 12 and he watched a stand-up comic on television.
Brent honed his comedy in school, and at the age of 20, he moved to Saskatoon to pursue a career in stand-up. Within months of his first amateur night appearance, he was offered a tour on the road. After a year, he was headlining top clubs in Toronto. Within four years, he began touring internationally and was showcased in his own gala performance at the world’s largest international comedy festival – Montreal’s Just For Laughs – where he became a regular.
Brent appeared on numerous national and international television programs, including his own special “Bedtime With Brent Butt” and “Comedy Now – Funnypants,” earning a Gemini-nomination.
He was named “Best Male Stand-Up in Canada” at the 2001 Canadian Comedy Awards and was subsequently selected to represent his country on the World Comedy Tour in Australia. He followed that by hosting the Just For Laughs Asian Tour in Singapore. His invitation to appear on “All-Star Comedy Homecoming,” the 50th anniversary special for a major Canadian network, secured his reputation as one of the funniest people in the country, as he performed alongside the most noted Canadian comedians of the past five decades.
Over the years, Brent, who claims he never really went after an acting career, landed bit parts in Duets, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, the Bob Saget directed TV movie Becoming Dick, and episodes of “The Kids in the Hall,” “The X-Files” and “Millennium.”
He began cooking up his own series, Corner Gas, set in the tiny town of Dog River with an odd bunch of archetypal characters. Brent not only starred in the series, he also wore several hats including creator, writer, showrunner, executive producer and director of several episodes. The series premiered January 22, 2004, on CTV and became a Canadian icon with unprecedented ratings and numerous accolades. It went on to become Canada’s #1 comedy, broadcast in over 26 countries including the US, and aired for six seasons.
Corner Gas was nominated for a 2004 International Emmy Award, surviving three rounds of preliminary judging from over 500 judges in 38 countries. The series won numerous awards, including Gemini Awards, Canadian Comedy Awards, Director’s Guild of Canada Awards and Writers Guild of Canada Awards.
In 2005, Brent followed in the footsteps of Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain… not as a singer, but as host of the 2005 Juno Awards.
In 2007, Brent, along with his Corner Gas co-stars, took home the Gemini for best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series. In 2008, he was honoured to join the ranks of Bob Newhart, John Cleese, John Candy and others when he received The Comedy Network Sir Peter Ustinov Award at The World Television Festival in Banff.
In 2010, Brent created another sitcom for TV called “Hiccups,” starring himself and Nancy Robertson. They made 26 episodes over two seasons, winning multiple Leo awards.
In 2013, Brent was honoured with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contributions to community and country. Later that same year, he made the transition to feature films and wrote and starred in his first feature, No Clue.
In 2014, Corner Gas: The Movie, written by Brent, Andrew Carr and Andrew Wreggitt, directed by David Storey, and starring the entire original cast, was shot in Saskatchewan. The landmark feature film rolled out via a national multi-platform event in December of that year, opening with an exclusive Cineplex Front Row Centre Events theatrical debut, followed by premieres on The Movie Network, CTV, and The Comedy Network. It was further complemented by a special collector’s edition DVD release.
In 2018, Corner Gas Animated, an all-new animated version of the iconic comedy franchise re-imagined by Brent, is to premiere on The Comedy Network.
Brent has made his home in Vancouver for the last 20 years and continues to tour the country with his unique brand of stand-up comedy, performing in theatres and as a much sought-after corporate entertainer.