David Zabel

David Zabel is a television writer and producer who wrote the story and together with Kenneth Biller the teleplay for the  sixth season episode.

Zabel was born in New York City, New York und grew up in Manhattan. In his early years he became inspired by theater and went to Princeton in 1984 with the aim to become a poet. He graduated in English literature and drama in 1988 and attended the Graduate Acting Program at Tisch School of Arts where he graduated in 1992. 

Throughout the next years, Zabel worked as an actor and director and appeared in an episode of Murder One (1995, with Daniel Benzali, John Fleck, Kevin Tighe, Barbara Bosson, Roy Brocksmith, James Avery, Ned Vaughn, Deborah May, Maury Ginsberg, Adam Scott, and Shelly Desai) and Reza Badiyi's television thriller Eye of the Stalker (1995, with Joanna Cassidy, Conor O'Farrell, Barbara Tarbuck, Lindsey Ginter, Rick Worthy, Michael Cavanaugh, and Matthew Faison).

But Zabel still wanted to write and wrote samples for the television series NYPD Blue, Ally McBeal, and ER before he was hired to write two episodes of JAG (1998-1999) prior to his writing credit on Voyager. Zabel then became story editor on the science fiction series Dark Angel in 2000 where he worked with actor John Savage. He remained on the series for its first season and also wrote the stories for five episodes. In 2001, Zabel moved as executive story editor to the eight season of the award winning drama series ER. He worked as writer of 43 episodes, producer, supervising producer, co-executive producer, and executive producer on ER for eight years until it was cancelled in 2009. During its last year, Zabel also directed the two episodes "Heal Thyself" and "What We Do" and worked with series regular Scott Grimes and recurring guest star Leland Orser. In 2007, he received a Humanitas Prize in the 60 Minute Category for the episode "There Are No Angels Here", shared with R. Scott Gemmill. Two years later he received another nomination for the episode "Heal Thyself".

During his time on ER, Zabel wrote with Todd Kessler the screenplay for the drama Keith in 2008. The film features Trek alumni Michael McGrady, Ethan Phillips, Tim Halligan, and Dennis Cockrum, stunt coordination by Christopher Doyle, and stunts by Paul Eliopoulos. In 2010, Zabel became showrunner for the action/crime series Detroit 1-8-7 which had Aisha Hinds and Erin Cummings in its cast. Zabel wrote six episodes, worked as executive producer and also directed the episode "Motor City Blues" in 2011, guest starring Alicia Coppola, before the series was cancelled after the first season.

Following a short stint as writer, executive producer and showrunner on the 2013 drama series Lucky 7, Zabel became showrunner on the drama series Betrayal in 2013. Currently he is working as executive producer and writer on the series which features Trek alumni James Cromwell in its cast. Zabel also directed the first season episode "...A Better Place" in 2013.