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Kirstie McLellan Day (born September 24, 1963) is a Canadian author, journalist and former television host. She was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan and studied drama at the University of Regina before relocating to Alberta. In the 1980’s, McLellan Day was a real-life “Charlie’s Angel,” working as an actress, model and private detective. She soon added journalist and broadcaster to her repertoire, becoming a reporter for Calgary’s premier News/Talk radio station CHQR.

McLellan Day’s success in radio soon led to television work with the city’s top local station, CTV affiliate - CFCN. McLellan Day became a reporter/host of the news magazine show FYI. From there, she moved on to co-host The Movie Show with her husband and business partner Larry Day. McLellan Day also worked as a weekly entertainment columnist for The Calgary Herald. The Movie Show was produced by the couple’s media company Pyramid Productions. The program was broadcast across Canada and syndicated to more than 70 countries, with fan mail pouring in from as far away as Tokyo, Singapore and Botswana. Over the course of two decades and 2600 episodes, McLellan Day interviewed the world’s biggest stars, including Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Jim Carrey, Kevin Costner and Meryl Streep.

The Movie Show ran for 17 seasons. Not long after the final episode aired, Pyramid Productions launched a new prime-time entertainment series Inside Entertainment, which aired six days a week across Canada on the Global Network.

By 2007, Pyramid Productions grew to more than 80 employees. The company built its own studios in southeast Calgary that included two sound stages, nine edit bays, two post-production suites, a post production sound suite, dressing, make-up and wardrobe rooms, as well as a center for computer animation. By 2009, Pyramid Productions led the nation in non-fiction television, producing an unprecedented 400 shows a year. Their broadcast clients included A&E, PBS, TV Guide Network, Discovery Asia, CTV, CBC, TSN, Rogers, CMT, Movie Central, HBO Canada, Bravo, OMNI, Biography, and the W Network.

McLellan Day went on to create, produce and host the TV series The Criminal Mind using investigative journalism, re-enactments and panel discussions to present the most fascinating criminal cases and issues arising from them.

The Criminal Mind led McLellan Day to write her first book No Remorse: A Father’s Murderous Rage. The story was a real-life version of The Shining, as she travelled deep inside the mind of Al Dolejs, a paranoid, anti-social carpenter.  When his wife left him because of his abusive behavior, Dolejs murdered his two children in a vicious act of revenge.

Her second book was the controversial autobiography Under The Mat profiling the tumultuous life of Diana Hart, sister of wrestling legend Bret “The Hitman” Hart, and former wife of “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith.

McLellan Day documented another high-profile family with Above and Beyond: The JR Shaw Family History in Life and Business. The meticulously researched, nearly 500-page book chronicled the rich history of the Shaw family, who became cable television and internet pioneers, and whose perseverance grew into a multi-billion dollar media empire.

In 2009, McLellan Day published Playing With Fire, which followed the exploits of NHL superstar Theoren Fleury. The book broke the story of the sexual abuse Fleury survived at the hands of his junior hockey coach, and documented explosive details of how Fleury blew $50 million on booze, cocaine, strippers and gambling. Playing With Fire flew off bookstore shelves, selling more than 80,000 copies within six weeks of its release. It stayed on the national bestsellers list for more than 52 weeks. The book’s success led to an award-winning one-man play (written by McLellan Day) and a critically-acclaimed HBO documentary produced and directed by her partner Larry Day.

As a hockey mom, McLellan Day had found her niche. She profiled another troubled NHL superstar with her second hockey book Tough Guy. This time, she partnered with legendary NHL enforcer Bob Probert to recount his personal battles with alcohol and drug addiction. Tragically, Probert died while collaborating on the book. McLellan Day respected the wishes of his widow Dani to finish telling Bob’s story. Published on October 26, 2010, Tough Guy went to the top of the best-seller list and became a Reader’s Digest Book of Choice.

She next partnered with long-time CBC Hockey host Ron MacLean on Cornered, which followed a storied broadcast career that led him to co-host Don Cherry’s [Hyperlink to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Cherry] wildly popular Coach’s Corner on Hockey Night In Canada. “Cornered would easily have been No. 1 for the entire fall, if it wasn't for Steve Jobs” [referring to the Apple co-founder’s biography from Walter Isaacson] said Jim Gifford, McLellan Day's editor at HarperCollins Canada.^[1]

In 2015, McLellan Day re-teamed with MacLean on Ron MacLean’s Hockey Towns. The book continued her incredible streak of #1 best-sellers. The following year, she spent the winter of 2016 with Wayne Gretzky writing 99: Stories of the Game - memorable and noteworthy hockey stories told by the greatest player in the game. In his review of the book, Sports Illustrated writer Colin Fleming said "I have held (Ken Dryden’s) The Game as the best hockey book ever written… I can say that more about this one. (Gretzky) has every record there is, (and now) might as well notch his name down for best hockey book."^[2]

As the mother of a NCAA goalie, McLellan Day focused her next books on two of the most famous netminders in the NHL. Calling The Shots was the intimate portrait of NHL All-Star-turned-broadcaster Kelly Hrudey. In addition to his exploits on the ice, Hrudey also detailed his personal battles with anxiety.

A year later, Cujo: The Untold Story of My Life On and Off the Ice chronicled the life and career of Curtis Joseph. It debuted at #1 in October 2018. As of mid-December 2018, the book was still #1 on the non-fiction best-seller list.  

With seven national bestsellers (including five instant #1 bestsellers in a row), including Wayne Gretzky’s #1 bestselling non-fiction book in Canada for 2016, Kirstie McLellan Day was now considered the world’s top hockey book author.

Harper Collins Canada Chief Editor Jim Gifford credited her with creating a new genre of sports book. Maclean's Magazine dubbed her Canada's “Ice Queen”, while The Globe and Mail called her “Hockey’s Leading Muse”.

BookNet Canada recently released a list of the 150 bestselling Canadian books since 2007. Children’s author Robert Munsch tops the chart with a remarkable 35 titles. McLellan Day is second on the list with six bestsellers, while Margaret Atwood has four books on the list, and Alice Munro and astronaut Chris Hadfield are some of the writers with three. To date,  McLellan Day’s books have sold more than a million copies, making her one of the most widely read writers in Canada.

McLellan Day continues to divide her time between writing and television production. She is currently the CEO of Pyramid Productions. McLellan Day serves as executive producer and writer on the true-crime series The Shocking Truth and Sex, Lies & Murder, made in conjunction with U.S. broadcaster Reelz. Pyramid and Reelz’s most recent feature-length documentary Charles Manson: The Final Words, written and directed by her son James Buddy Day, was released just three days before the convicted killer’s death in 2017. Narrated by Rob Zombie, the film earned critical raves from Billboard, Rolling Stone Magazine, and The Daily Mail.  It won awards at both the Atlanta DocuFest and the Red Rock Film Festival in Utah. 

Kirstie McLellan Day’s proudest accomplishments are her five children – James Buddy, Charlie, Lundy, Paul and Geordie (NightSchool Films, Tough Guy: The Bob Probert Story), as well as her contribution in raising awareness, through documentary film and non-fiction books, about child sexual abuse and mental health issues.

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