diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index cfb578e21581645985c72e23c6acd820a470c041..cf5ab4920fb82dcdf736f52379cb2d275830dc1d 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@ INSTALL_REQUIRES = (
 
 SETUP_REQUIRES = (
     'sphinx>=1.3',
+    'sphinx_rtd_theme>=0.1.8'
 ) + INSTALL_REQUIRES
 
 COMMAND_CLASS = {
diff --git a/src/python/grpcio/commands.py b/src/python/grpcio/commands.py
index aa29c728f259e6e47e2689e8978fd07b6bea7213..99ba41b614f0f3e3afc8c721ed3ba0319a18d597 100644
--- a/src/python/grpcio/commands.py
+++ b/src/python/grpcio/commands.py
@@ -119,8 +119,7 @@ class SphinxDocumentation(setuptools.Command):
     import sphinx
     import sphinx.apidoc
     metadata = self.distribution.metadata
-    src_dir = os.path.join(
-        PYTHON_STEM, self.distribution.package_dir[''], 'grpc')
+    src_dir = os.path.join(PYTHON_STEM, 'grpc')
     sys.path.append(src_dir)
     sphinx.apidoc.main([
         '', '--force', '--full', '-H', metadata.name, '-A', metadata.author,
diff --git a/tools/distrib/python/docgen.py b/tools/distrib/python/docgen.py
index 4ac8f9c64a847a1455b059bbced463db4f7be327..72c65ad14a885a05e05edc746760db9202d9c955 100755
--- a/tools/distrib/python/docgen.py
+++ b/tools/distrib/python/docgen.py
@@ -51,29 +51,35 @@ SCRIPT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
 PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(SCRIPT_DIR, '..', '..', '..'))
 
 CONFIG = args.config
-SETUP_PATH = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'src/python/grpcio/setup.py')
-DOC_PATH = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'src/python/grpcio/doc/build')
+SETUP_PATH = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'setup.py')
+REQUIREMENTS_PATH = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'requirements.txt')
+DOC_PATH = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'doc/build')
 INCLUDE_PATH = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'include')
 LIBRARY_PATH = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'libs/{}'.format(CONFIG))
 VIRTUALENV_DIR = os.path.join(SCRIPT_DIR, 'distrib_virtualenv')
 VIRTUALENV_PYTHON_PATH = os.path.join(VIRTUALENV_DIR, 'bin', 'python')
+VIRTUALENV_PIP_PATH = os.path.join(VIRTUALENV_DIR, 'bin', 'pip')
 
 environment = os.environ.copy()
 environment.update({
     'CONFIG': CONFIG,
     'CFLAGS': '-I{}'.format(INCLUDE_PATH),
     'LDFLAGS': '-L{}'.format(LIBRARY_PATH),
-    'LD_LIBRARY_PATH': LIBRARY_PATH
+    'LD_LIBRARY_PATH': LIBRARY_PATH,
+    'GRPC_PYTHON_BUILD_WITH_CYTHON': '1',
 })
 
 subprocess_arguments_list = [
     {'args': ['make'], 'cwd': PROJECT_ROOT},
     {'args': ['virtualenv', VIRTUALENV_DIR], 'env': environment},
+    {'args': [VIRTUALENV_PIP_PATH, 'install', '-r', REQUIREMENTS_PATH],
+     'env': environment},
     {'args': [VIRTUALENV_PYTHON_PATH, SETUP_PATH, 'build'], 'env': environment},
     {'args': [VIRTUALENV_PYTHON_PATH, SETUP_PATH, 'doc'], 'env': environment},
 ]
 
 for subprocess_arguments in subprocess_arguments_list:
+  print('Running command: {}'.format(subprocess_arguments['args']))
   subprocess.check_call(**subprocess_arguments)
 
 if args.submit: