Jed MacKay

Jed MacKay is a veteran Canadian children's TV producer/writer/composer. He began his career writing for TVOntario's long-running success "Polka Dot Door" and CBC's groundbreaking "Homemade Television", winner of the Children's Broadcast Institute prize for Best Children's Show. Under Exec Producer Ruth Vernon, he went on to be one of the unsung architects of pre-school children's television at Canada's TVOntario, along with producers like Clive Vanderburgh and Jeremy Pollock, and writers like Clive Endersby. MacKay et al bucked the trend to short, segmented shows (pioneered by the Children's Television Workshop), and developed the "edutainment" formula with series such as "Today's Special", "Write On", "Bookmice" and "Telefrancais", which eventually became the standard for North American pre-school children's television. MacKay became a producer in 1985, producing "Polka Dot Door" (and discovering Gloria Reuben) as well as creating and producing TVOntario's "Join In!", (nominated twice for the Best Pre-school Children's Show Gemini, and winner of the Alliance For Children and Television's Best Program prize) and "Polka Dot Shorts", which won the Gemini (Canada's Emmy) for Best Pre-school Children's Series. He developed the series "Elliott Moose" for Nelvana. MacKay also composed the original songs for the shows he wrote or created, as well as the insanely catchy themes for "Join In!", "Polka Dot Shorts", "Telefrancais" and "Elliott Moose". He has written or composed for many other series, and was recently the Creative Producer and Executive Story Editor for Halifax Film's international hit "Lunar Jim". He was also a consultant on the Emmy-nominated "Big Big World".

MacKay was also the Co-ordinating Director for CBC's "Just For Laughs" TV series from 2000-2003, garnering a Gemini win for Sean Cullen and two more Gemini nominations for the series.