TORONTO - They got venerable news anchor Lloyd Robertson to say "Drizzy" and "homey" on camera, made viewers across Canada howl, and have critics hailing this year's Juno Awards bash as one of the best ever.

Surely the writers behind Sunday's hilarious skits, which starred rapper-host Drake, are veterans who've worked on scores of shows, right?

Turns out the three main scribes -- Mazin Elsadig, Jonathan Malen and Al Mukadam -- are up-and-comers, aged 25 and under, who'd never written for a show as big as the Junos.

Insight Productions hired the trio, who make up Toronto-based BAMN Productions (By Any Means Necessary Productions), about a month ago on the recommendation of Aubrey (Drake) Graham, their old high-school pal with whom they'd already acted, written, produced and directed.

"One of the producers, Louise Wood, we sat down with her and Aubrey was the one who reached out to her and told her: 'I'd love these guys to be my writing team,"' Elsadig, 23, said in an interview this week.

"I think a lot of people were urging him to initially hire experienced writers, people who had written for variety shows," added Elsadig.

"And I think he felt like he really wanted someone to get it right for him."

Elsadig was even in the opening skit for Sunday's broadcast, which CTV says was the most-watched Juno Awards on record with 2.4 million viewers. He played Kevion, a flippant stage manager who chatted with Drake backstage before the show began.

The rapper then turned his attention to his laptop to chat on Skype with Robertson about their upcoming "Call of Duty" video game match.

"Good luck, Drizzy, but don't forget -- tomorrow, your butt is toast,"' said Robertson.

"Ha, bring it on, anchorman," responded Drake.

"You know I will, homey," Robertson deadpanned.

Stratford, Ont., teen pop prince Justin Bieber then appeared on Skype from Rotterdam and he and Drake serenaded each other with Sarah McLachlan's hit, "I Will Remember You."

In a second skit, Drake visited a retirement home to hook up with "old money" and educate its residents on Canadian hip hop.

The BAMN team collaborated on the show with Emmy-winning Canadian writer Paul Greenberg, who produced Drake's segments.

Mukaddam, 25, directed and Malen, 23, produced the skits, which have landed tens of thousands of hits on YouTube.

Insight gave them "free rein" to do what they wanted as long as they got the proper clearances, they said.

"We wrote as in 'the sky's the limit,"' said Elsadig, who has also acted on "Degrassi" and attends York University (he even had a paper due the day after the Junos).

"That was our way of thinking, and when you write like that ... there are so many possibilities."

Robertson, he added, was immediately "down" with the idea for his skit and Drake had a lot of input into the scripts.

"Aubrey, we basically give him the concept and he just punches it up," said Elsadig, who called Drake an "invisible fourth member" of their team.

"For the most part it was written, but he's always got a great way of tweaking it."

The BAMN team first met Drake in Vaughan Road Academy's Interact program for students involved in dance, music, theatre and athletics (other alumni include Ellen Page, Alison Pill and Shenae Grimes).

They're now writing a feature-length script with the rapper based on a comedy series that they'd all developed before his music career took off. A demo reel for the show can be found on YouTube under the title "Us & Them."

The BAMN guys, who've also done several short films, say they're also developing a show with Family Channel and have been speaking with various production companies about other projects.

Their goal, they say, is to create unique, standout material that's on par with projects in the U.S. and England.

"There's just not enough standalone stuff that comes out of this country and we're young and we're hoping to kind of shake things up a little bit," said Malen.

"There are a lot of amazing production companies here, producers and writers and actors, and we love them all and we're looking forward to really working within this country and what we have here."