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.

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).

Zara first appears when Heston Carter (Owen Brenman), Julia Parsons (Diane Keen) and Lily Hassan (Seeta Indrani) are interviewing for a new GP.

The pair have sex, but Zara ends the relationship immediately after, stating that they needed to get their sexual attraction out of the way before they could work together.

After an ongoing affair, Jack eventually tells his dad, Rob Hollins (Chris Walker), that he has been in a relationship with Zara.

Karen notices that Zara's underwear is the same of what she found in Jack's room and gets very angry, leading to the pair fighting in reception.

Zara goes into premature labour at the Mill, with only Cherry Clay (Sophie Abelson) and Kevin Tyler (Simon Rivers) around to help her.

Zara later takes a sabbatical from, and at her leaving party she gives a speech, telling them all to count down the days until she returns.

During this time, Joe is kidnapped, and the family have to be protected by the police due to the possibility of violence and threats from gang members who were involved in the murder.

Daniel begins a relationship with practice manager Becky Clarke (Ali Bastian), which Zara has trouble adjusting to.

After Daniel misdiagnoses Rowena Mitchell (Bobby Wilkinson), who has endometriosis, Emma points out that his actions could have had fatal results and accredited his mistake with being an uninformed male doctor.

Zara is defensive of Daniel despite Emma's points, and the pair continuously argue with each other at the Mill, leaving them both getting warned by practice manager Bear Sylvester (Dex Lee).

Zara's BBC profile revealed that in her backstory, she became a "daddy's girl" and established a close relationship with father Jed Grey (Paul Shelley) after her mother died.

[2] She liked that Zara is honest and straight-talking, but acknowledged that she can come across as frightening due to her "high shoes, short skirt and cleavage".

[3] When asked if she prefers playing Zara's bitchier moments or her more vulnerable side, Walsh replied: "Well, nothing beats a good putdown line or a bitchy comment!

Speaking at the Inside Soap Awards, she said: "There's a fantastic five-part story coming up in the next few weeks involving my character and Daniel.

"[5] Speaking of Zara's feelings towards Daniel once her character returns from her break in Bristol, Walsh explained: "Well, it's very complicated.

Walsh does not typically like to know about storylines in advance as it aids her to portray Zara's natural reaction to events, but she felt that it was useful to know the outcome for their relationship.

On their slow burn relationship, she stated that it was "exhausting but such a pleasure to play long form", and hinted that their reunion would be as complicated as their marriage breakdown.

So that's a very significant name for Daniel, and I think it's very loving of Zara that she doesn't insist on calling the baby something like Lysander or Demetrius - as she'd teased him that she would!"

[11] When asked how Zara would depart, producer Peter Eryl Lloyd told Digital Spy: "We're so pleased for her and she's loving being a mum, though of course we miss her - she'll leave our screens at the end of August.

I filmed Zara's departure scenes in April last year, and then I did two weeks in September for her return at Christmas, which was a bit early because my baby was so little!

[16] Walsh and Chambers were nominated for Best On-Screen Partnership at the 2012 British Soap Awards, but lost out to Jake Wood and Jo Joyner who play Max and Tanya Branning on EastEnders.

[19] For her portrayal of Zara, Walsh won Best Female Acting Performance at the 2015 RTS Midlands Awards.

[21] Walsh shared her delight on Twitter, admitting that she was overwhelmed to receive the prize on her first day back at work following her initial maternity leave.

[23][24] In 2022, Walsh revealed that people are unkind to her in the street since they dislike her character, but explained that she takes their rudeness as a compliment to her acting, and admitted that Zara does divide viewers.