[1] He is most noted as a two-time Dora Mavor Moore Award winner for Outstanding New Play, Independent Theatre, winning in 2018 for Bears[2] and in 2023 for The First Métis Man of Odesa.
[4] His play Sia won the Alberta Playwriting Competition in 2010, and received its premiere production at Toronto's Factory Theatre in 2012.
[4] His play Benefit was staged by Edmonton's Downstage Performance Society in 2014, and won two Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards.
[4] Bears was inspired in part by MacKenzie's discovery of his Métis ancestry, which his family had previously hidden.
During this period, he also went on several cultural exchange trips to Ukraine to learn more about the country,[12] during which he met and entered a relationship with Ukrainian actress Mariya Khomutova.