Degrassi is a Canadian teen drama television franchise created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler, that follows the lives of youths attending the eponymous secondary school in Toronto. Each entry since 1987 has followed the same continuity. It is regarded as one of Canada's greatest and most successful media exports. Outside of television, the franchise comprises a variety of other media, such as companion novels, graphic novels, documentaries, soundtracks, and non-fiction works.

The franchise originated in the late 1970s, when ex-schoolteacher Schuyler formed a partnership with editor Hood to produce educational films and documentaries. The television success of Ida Makes a Movie (1979), a short film based on a book by Kay Chorao, on the CBC, led to the pair creating subsequent installments which eventually began airing under the name The Kids of Degrassi Street (1982–1986). By the mid-1980s, the aging cast inspired the pair to develop a new series, Degrassi Junior High (1987–1989). Regarded as the first modern television teen drama, Degrassi Junior High gained widespread acclaim and established the franchise as a Canadian cultural icon. It enjoyed further acclaim and success after rebranding to Degrassi High (1989–1991), which chronicled the Degrassi Junior High cast's high school years. Creative exhaustion largely contributed to the franchise's initial end with the controversial post-graduation television film School's Out (1992), which drew double the average viewership of the series, followed by the non-fiction documentary miniseries Degrassi Talks (1992), in which actors spoke to teens nationwide about various issues.

Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High experienced sustained success in re-runs and syndication throughout the 1990s, aided by the emergence of online fan websites. A successful televised cast reunion in 1999 ultimately resulted in Schuyler creating a revival series, Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–2015), which originally aired on CTV in Canada and The N in the United States. It focused on a new generation of students, augmented by select original characters in supporting roles. While respectably successful in Canada, The Next Generation made a significantly larger impact in the United States, and is credited with launching the careers of rapper Drake and actress Nina Dobrev. After nine seasons, The Next Generation was cancelled by CTV due to declining ratings; a subsequent deal with TeenNick resulted in a major retool of the series, its name changed simply to Degrassi and the format changed to a style reminiscent of telenovela. After five more seasons, it was cancelled by TeenNick in 2015. A deal with Netflix resulted in the short-lived co-production Degrassi: Next Class (2016–2017), which was geared toward Generation Z. It was cancelled in 2017, though this was not revealed until 2019. In January 2022, a new series was announced for HBO Max in which Schuyler would not be involved. It was ultimately cancelled as a result of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, though WildBrain has indicated that they still intend to produce the series.

Degrassi has been widely acclaimed by critics over its four-decade history for its sympathetic portrayal of youth experiences and perceived authenticity compared to other teen-oriented media. It has faced international scrutiny and censorship since the late 1980s, particularly in regards to episodes depicting teenage pregnancy, abortion, and LGBT issues. Among the awards and accolades it has received include numerous Gemini Awards, two International Emmy Awards in 1985 and 1987, and a Peabody Award in 2010. The franchise was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in December 2023.

In 1976, Linda Schuyler, a Grade 7 and Grade 8 media teacher at Earl Grey Senior Public School in Toronto, founded Playing With Time Inc. with her partner Kit Hood. Schuyler had met Hood, who had a career in editing television commercials, when she needed help from an experienced editor to save the "muddled footage" of one of her projects. As a media teacher, Schuyler encouraged her students to use video as a narrative tool. Bruce Mackey, Earl Grey's librarian and a friend of Schuyler, procured her several books about filmmaking upon her request, one being Ida Makes a Movie, by the American author Kay Chorao. Mackey did not realize that it was a children's book and discarded it, but Schuyler developed an interest in adapting the book into a film. Before leaving, Schuyler sought legal advice from Stephen Stohn, a young entertainment lawyer who had recently graduated from law school, and who would eventually become her producing partner and husband.

Stohn recalled in his 2018 memoir Whatever It Takes that he advised Schuyler that being out of print, buying the rights to the book on her own would be "relatively straightforward", and that involving lawyers would make the process "unnecessarily complicated." Stohn instead gave Schuyler a boilerplate form for permission to take with her to New York. Schuyler purchased the rights for $200. The feline characters were changed into human children, and the story was also largely repurposed. The film featured production techniques that Schuyler and Kit Hood felt were missing from children's programming: it was shot in a cinéma vérité style, with handheld camera work and entirely on-location shooting. Mackey offered his home, 98 De Grassi Street, as a filming location.

Ida Makes a Movie premiered on CBC Television on December 8, 1979. Over the next couple of years, the network ordered two more short films. By 1982, they ordered five more episodes, developing the series of short films into a television series named The Kids of Degrassi Street. In 1985, the episode Griff Gets A Hand (which starred future "Wheels" actor Neil Hope as Griff) received an International Emmy Award for Best Children & Young People.

A new Degrassi series began development in 1986, this time with new characters and centered around the fictional eponymous school near the same street. The first actor to audition for the new Degrassi series was Pat Mastroianni, who would later win the role of Joey Jeremiah. Several of the actors from The Kids of Degrassi Street would return with new roles, including Neil Hope, Stacie Mistysyn, Anais Granofsky, and Sarah Charlesworth. It was at this time that Playing With Time Inc. started a repertory company, with fifty children selected from auditions. The workshops would be repeated at the beginning of production for each season, as new cast members joined, and existing cast members underwent more advanced workshops. The repertory company also meant that even major characters could be relegated to the background if not the main focus of the episode, which according to Kathryn Ellis, was "nearly unheard-of on other television shows." Conversely, a background character could later be given more lines or a full role.