He also made appearances in television including a recurring role as Principal Toby Cook in Lena Dunham's HBO series Girls from 2015 to 2016.
He wrote political commentary, such as "The Flapjack File", a column for The New Republic, as well as articles for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.
The following year he started the first of his many collaborations with Woody Allen, co-writing his musical comedy film Bullets Over Broadway starring John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri, and Jim Broadbent.
He continued his relationship with Allen acting in several of his films including Celebrity (1998), Small Time Crooks (2000), Hollywood Ending (2002), Café Society (2016), and Rifkin's Festival (2020).
During this time he also played supporting roles in critically acclaimed films such as Robert Redford's Quiz Show (1994), Greg Mottola's The Daytrippers (1996), Todd Solondz's Happiness (1998), and Michael Mann's The Insider (1999).
[4] McGrath continued his career as a director with the comedy Company Man (2000) starring himself, Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, and Alan Cumming.
He soon returned to directing with the film adaptation of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby (2002) starring Jamie Bell, Anne Hathaway, Nathan Lane, Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent, and Christopher Plummer.
Famed film critic Roger Ebert praised McGrath for his adaptation writing, "The movie is jolly and exciting and brimming with life, and wonderfully well-acted.
In 2011 he directed his final narrative feature film the romantic comedy I Don't Know How She Does It starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Christina Hendricks, Olivia Munn, and Kelsey Grammer.
[11] He had been performing Off-Broadway in his solo autobiographical show Everything's Fine directed by John Lithgow at the Daryl Roth Theatre, a run which was cut short by his death.