David Breitel Zabel is an American television producer and writer. He has worked extensively on '' ER'', becoming an executive producer and the series' showrunner. He has won a

Humanitas Prize The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing, and is given to writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser—also the founder of Paulist P ...

for his writing for ''ER''. He was also the showrunner/executive producer of the PBS series ''

Mercy Street "Mercy Street" is a song written by English musician Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album '' So''. Background and recording The song was inspired by the personal and confessional works of the American poet Anne Sexton, who wrote a play titled '' ...

''.

Early life

Zabel was raised in New York City. He attended Princeton University and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

's Graduate Acting Program at the

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

Career

Zabel began his scriptwriting career with episodes for '' JAG'' and '' Star Trek: Voyager''. He then became the story editor for the first season of ''Dark Angel'' in 2000 while continuing to write teleplays. In 2001, Zabel joined the crew of ''ER'' as an executive story editor and was promoted to co-executive producer later that season. He was made executive producer partway through the tenth season and took on the role of showrunner for the eleventh season. As a credited writer, Zabel contributed to over 45 scripts for ''ER''. Zabel and R. Scott Gemmill were awarded the

in the 60 minutes category in 2007 for their script for the season 12 episode " There Are No Angels Here", which followed doctors from the Chicago-set series performing aid work in a refugee camp in Darfur. Humanitas stated that the prize was awarded for the episode's "unflinching look at the brutality inherent in civil wars and its belief that heroism is complex, complicated and multi-layered." Zabel led the show through the 2007 Writers Guild of America Strike and picketed along with the rest of the writing team. Thirteen episodes were written prior to the strike, and new episodes were written once the strike was resolved, so Zabel was able to deliver a shortened 19 episode season. Zabel was the showrunner/executive producer of "ER" through the end of its run, after 15 seasons, in 2009. He was nominated for a second Humanitas Prize for writing the episode "Heal Thyself," which he also directed. He was the showrunner of ''

Detroit 1-8-7 ''Detroit 1-8-7'' is an American police procedural drama series about the Detroit Police Department's leading homicide unit, created by Jason Richman for ABC. It featured an ensemble cast of actors including Michael Imperioli and James McDaniel. ...

'' in 2010-2011, for which he also wrote and directed numerous episodes. In 2013, he had two pilots that he wrote and produced go to series on ABC - '' Lucky 7'' (co-written with Jason Richman) and ''

Betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. ...

''. He served as executive producer and showrunner on both shows. In 2016, the first season of his PBS series ''

'' aired. The second season was released on January 22, 2017, being cancelled on March 9 of that year.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zabel, David 1966 births Living people American television writers American male television writers Tisch School of the Arts alumni