Life with Derek is a Canadian television teen sitcom that aired on Family Channel (English) and VRAK.TV (French) in Canada and on Disney Channel in the United States. The series premiered on Family on September 18, 2005, and ran for four seasons, ending its run on March 25, 2009. Reruns currently air on Family Channel and previously aired on multiplex sister channel Family Chrgd. The series stars Michael Seater as the titular character and Ashley Leggat as his step-sister Casey. These are the two oldest children in a stepfamily. It ended having aired 70 episodes, and was followed by one spin-off television film, entitled Vacation with Derek, which was filmed in northern Ontario in fall 2009, and it aired on Family Channel on June 25, 2010. On May 12, 2020, Shaftesbury Films announced that a spinoff television film, titled Life with Luca and set 15 years after the original series, was in development. The spin-off feature film premiered in February 2023.

Plot

George Venturi (John Ralston), a divorced man from London, Ontario who had custody of his three children from a previous marriage: sons Derek (Michael Seater) and Edwin (Daniel Magder), and daughter Marti (Ariel Waller), marries a divorced woman named Nora McDonald (Joy Tanner), who has two daughters of her own from a previous marriage: Casey (Ashley Leggat) and Lizzie (Jordan Todosey). Up until that point, Casey was perfectly content with her life. Growing up as the oldest child in a household in Toronto with only her mother and sister had suited her well and brought her up as a self-sufficient and independent young woman. After George and Nora's marriage, the McDonalds moved in with the Venturis in London, Ontario. Casey was originally upset about having to move to London, Ontario from Toronto, a much bigger city (as shown in the episode "How I Met Your Stepbrother"), for many reasons including Derek, but she eventually got over her own problems and agreed to move there for Nora and George's sake once she saw how much they cared for each other.

Cast and characters

Main

Recurring

Guest

Episodes

Production

The first season was filmed on soundstages at Atlantic Studios Cooperative Sound Stage in Corner Brook. Seasons two through four were filmed in Toronto.

Broadcast

Original broadcast

Life with Derek and another Canadian sitcom, Naturally, Sadie, were both added to Disney Channel in the United States in 2005. In June 2007, Naturally, Sadie was pulled from the channel, but Life with Derek was left on. Though many episodes were originally broadcast on Family in Canada, Disney often advertised the episodes as being new episodes. Life with Derek has not aired on the Disney Channel since January 2, 2010, but reruns continued to air on Family, Family CHRGD until September 2016, and VRAK.TV in Canada. The first two seasons were added to CBC Gem on December 26, 2019. The remaining episodes were later added on February 14, 2020. In 2023, all four seasons were added to Roku TV. In 2024, all 4 seasons were made available on byutv.org and the BYUtv App.

Home media

Awards and nominations

Spinoff film

Life with Luca is a spinoff movie announced by Canadian media company WildBrain in August 2022. The film is set to follow the return of Casey and Derek, who are all grown up and have teenagers of their own. "The movie picks up fifteen years later and follows Derek and Casey as they each navigate parenthood and raise distinctly different teenagers," the movie's official logline reads, per The Sun. The synopsis teased that Casey is now a married lawyer with three kids, while Derek is a successful musician who is also a single dad of one daughter. Actors Jordan Todosey and Danny Magder, who played Casey's sister Lizzie and Derek's brother Edwin, won't be rejoining the cast. According to WildBrain Television, the actors are not reprising their younger sibling roles due to "scheduling challenges"; Todosey claimed she was not contacted.