| Zara Carmichael | |||||||||||||||||
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| Doctors character | |||||||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Elisabeth Dermot Walsh | ||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 2009–2024 | ||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | "Red Letter Day" 4 June 2009 | ||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Will Trotter | ||||||||||||||||
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Dr. Zara Carmichael is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera Doctors, portrayed by Elisabeth Dermot Walsh. Zara was introduced as a new general practitioner at the fictional Mill Health Centre on 4 June 2009 and remained a regular character until April 2012 when Walsh left to go on maternity leave. She returned for a brief appearance in December 2012, before returning full-time in February 2013. In September 2015, Walsh left again to go on maternity leave. She returned full-time from March 2016 onwards.
Since her introduction, Zara has been involved in a number of different storylines including being kidnapped, dealing with early menopause, the birth of her son, her on-off relationship with Daniel Granger (Matthew Chambers), her feud with Daniel's daughter, Izzie Torres (Bethan Moore), and her tumultuous friendship with Emma Reid (Dido Miles). For her portrayal of Zara, Walsh won the award for Best Female Acting Performance at the 2015 RTS Midlands Awards. She has also been nominated in the Serial Drama Performance at the National Television Awards twice, as well as receiving three longlist nominations for the British Soap Award for Best Actress.