Lisa Zwerling is an American physician (member of the
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association (AMA) is an American professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. This medical association was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was 271,660 ...
), television writer and producer (member of the
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the name of two American labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio, and online media:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is headquartered in New York City and is affiliated wit ...
& the
Producers Guild of America
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing the interests Television producer, television producers, Film producer, film producers and emerging media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership inclu ...
). She has worked on the medical drama series ''
Presidio Med'' and ''
ER'' and science fiction series ''
FlashForward
A flashforward (also spelled flash-forward, and more formally known as prolepsis) is a scene that temporarily takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards a ...
''.
Biography
Zwerling began her television career as a technical advisor and writer for the medical drama ''
Presidio Med''. The series was canceled before completing its first season. ''Presidio Med'' was created and executive produced by
John Wells. Following the conclusion of ''Presidio Med'' Wells hired Zwerling as a
story editor
Story editor is a job title in motion picture and television production, also sometimes called supervising producer. The responsibilities of the story editor vary depending on the production; this article describes the duties the role most commo ...
for the
tenth season of long running medical drama ''
ER''. She made her writing debut for the series with the episode "NICU".
[NICU">]
Zwerling returned for the
eleventh season as an executive story editor. She wrote a further four episodes - "An Intern's Guide To The Galaxy",
"Middleman",
"Back in the World",
and "Ruby Redux".
"Back in the World" was co-written with executive producer and
show runner
A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...
David Zabel. "Ruby Redux" was co-written with executive producer
Lydia Woodward.
For the
twelfth season Zwerling became a producer, initially being credited as a co-producer. Zwerling co-wrote the season opener "Canon City" with Wells and co-executive producer
Joe Sachs.
She co-wrote a further episode, "Quintessence of Dust", again with Zabel,
and scripted a third episode "
Lost in America
''Lost in America'' is a 1985 American satirical road comedy film directed by Albert Brooks and co-written by Brooks with Monica Johnson. The film stars Brooks alongside Julie Hagerty as a married couple who decide to quit their jobs and tra ...
" on her own.
She was promoted for the
thirteenth season becoming a producer and contributing a further five episodes - "
Graduation Day"
(with executive producer
Janine Sherman Barrois), "Scoop and Run",
"City of Mercy"
(with Zabel), "Crisis of Conscience",
and "Sea Change".
She garnered more responsibility for the
fourteenth season becoming a supervising producer and writing a further five episodes including the season finale. She collaborated with staff writer
Karen Maser on "
In A Different Light"
- Zwerling's first episode collaborating with a junior writer. She also wrote "The Test",
"Atonement",
"Truth Will Out" (again with Maser),
and season finale "The Chicago Way" with David Zabel.
Zwerling is currently a co-executive producer and writer on the
fifteenth and final season of ''ER''. She wrote the second episode of the season "Another Thursday at County."
She also co-wrote "
The Book of Abby" (again with Zabel) which was the final episode of long-serving series star
Maura Tierney who plays
Abby Lockhart.
After the conclusion of ''
ER'', she joined the crew of new
ABC science fiction series ''
FlashForward
A flashforward (also spelled flash-forward, and more formally known as prolepsis) is a scene that temporarily takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards a ...
'' in 2009. Zwerling served as a co-executive producer and writer for the series. The show focuses on a team of
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
agents following a global consciousness blackout that gives people a vision of their futures. The series was created by
Brannon Braga and
David S. Goyer both of whom also served as executive producers. Zwerling co-wrote five episodes for the first season. She co-wrote the episode "Black Swan" with
Scott M. Gimple.
She co-wrote the episode "The Gift" with
Ian Goldberg.
She co-wrote the episode "Blowback" with
Barbara Nance.
She co-wrote the episode "The Garden of Forking Paths" with Goyer.
She co-wrote the seasons penultimate episode "Countdown" with Seth Hoffman.
Fox has handed a late pilot order to ''
Weekend at Bellevue'', a medical drama from former ER writer-producer Lisa Zwerling and BermanBraun (
Lloyd Braun/
Gail Berman). The project, centered on a psychiatrist in charge of the weekend shift of
Bellevue Hospital psychiatric unit, was originally set up at NBC and UMS earlier this season. After the network recently passed on the script, it was taken to Fox. ''Weekend at Bellevue'' is based on
Julie Holland's memoir about her nine-year stint as the weekend physician in charge of the psychiatric emergency room at the oldest public hospital in the United States whose name has become synonymous with insanity. Zwerling, Gail Berman, Lloyd Braun and
Gene Stein are executive producing. In 2018, Zwerling and
Karyn Usher will showrun the TV series
The Rook.
Filmography
Producer
Writer
References
External links
*
NBC official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwerling, Lisa
21st-century American physicians
American television writers
American television producers
American women television producers
Living people
American women television writers
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American screenwriters