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.

Doctors is a British medical soap opera, first broadcast on BBC One on 26 March 2000. Filmed in Birmingham and set in the fictional West Midlands town of Letherbridge, the soap follows the lives of the staff of both an NHS doctor's surgery and a university campus surgery, as well as the lives of their families and friends. Initially, only 41 episodes of the programme were ordered, but due to the positive reception, the BBC ordered it as a continuing soap opera. Doctors was filmed at the Pebble Mill Studios until 2004; production then relocated to the BBC Drama Village, where it will film until 2024. Episodes are filmed three months prior to transmission. The soap is typically broadcast on weekdays at 1:45 pm on BBC One, as well as having classic episodes broadcast on Drama. It takes three annual transmission breaks across the year: at Easter, during the summer and at Christmas.