After being caught in a "drunken grope-fest" with another boy at a party, his student council asked him to leave school as they feared he "wouldn't be safe."
[1] Berend made his film debut in the 2002 movie, Life or Something Like It in a small role alongside Angelina Jolie.
In 2006 McKenzie debuted at the Edmonton Fringe Festival with his first full-length play, Get Off the Cross, Mary, a queer disco puppet remake of The Passion of the Christ.
Nggrfg is set up as four stories told by McKenzie about growing up black and gay in Alberta, with little tolerance for each by his peers.
[2][4][5] The play earned a Jessie Award nomination for Original Script and was also run at Halifax's Queer Acts Theatre Festival.