At the age of 16, he watched his first film, Lassie Comes Home, and was subsequently "hooked on cinema forever.

[citation needed] Working as a scenic artist on 68 feature films and over 700 commercials in his native Toronto, Grove developed a distaste for the wasted resources on set and union bureaucracy that prevented aspiring filmmakers like himself from getting their own features off the ground.

[1][5] Grove established the British Independent Film Awards in 1998 and launched the IPTV platform Raindance TV in 2007.

[1] He also founded the Independent Film Trust, a charitable organization that empowers children facing disabilities or disadvantaged circumstances to express themselves through the art of filmmaking.

[5] In July 2009, Grove was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Open University at Plymouth College of Art, in recognition of his contribution to education in independent film.