---
name: "David Zabel"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/david-zabel"
roles: ["Director","Writer"]
born: "1 April 1966"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T21:21:07.750096+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# David Zabel

Director and writer. Born 1 April 1966 in New York City, New York, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer
- **Born:** 1 April 1966, New York City, New York, USA

## Biography

David Zabel is an American television writer and producer. He studied English literature and drama at Princeton University and attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for graduate theatre training.

He began his writing career on series including *JAG* (1995) and *Star Trek: Voyager* (1995), then worked on *Dark Angel* (2000). Zabel joined *ER* (1994) in 2001 as an executive story editor, later serving as executive producer and showrunner from the eleventh season until the series ended in 2009; he wrote more than 45 episodes and directed several. He received a Humanitas Prize for an *ER* episode co-written with R. Scott Gemmill.

Subsequent credits include executive producing and writing on *Detroit 1-8-7* (2010), *Betrayal* (2013) and *Lucky 7* (2013), as well as work on *Red Band Society* (2014), *Mercy Street* (2016) and *The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon* (2023). He also wrote the screenplay for the feature film *Keith* (2008).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, tvinsider.com, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *ER* (1994), Fi1m 88, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/er.md)

## Also known for

- *Star Trek: Voyager* (1995), Writer
- *The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon* (2023), Writer, Teleplay
- *Dark Angel* (2000), Writer
- *Keith* (2008), Screenplay
- *JAG* (1995), Writer
- *Red Band Society* (2014), Story

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/david-zabel