Daniel Zelman: The Writer Behind Damages and Bloodline

From Broadway acting to creating two major television dramas, Daniel Zelman built his career mainly behind the camera.

FixixSeptember 10, 2026

0 5 7 minutes read

Introduction

Daniel Zelman is an American television writer, producer, creator, showrunner, director, and former actor. He is best known for co-creating Damages and Bloodline with Todd A. Kessler and Glenn Kessler.

His career took an unusual path.

He trained as an actor. He worked on Broadway. Then writing became his main focus.

That move worked.

Damages brought Zelman major industry recognition, including three individual Primetime Emmy nominations. Years later, Bloodline gave the same creative team another major television series.

Zelman has also worked on Succession, an unproduced Game of Thrones prequel pilot, FX’s The Border pilot, and a Jonestown television project developed with Bill Hader.

Quick Facts About Daniel Zelman

Fact	Details
Full professional name	Daniel Zelman
Profession	Writer, producer, television creator and former actor
Known for	Damages and Bloodline
Education	Harvard University and NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Harvard class	1990
NYU Graduate Acting class	1993
Broadway work	Angels in America
Major collaborators	Todd A. Kessler and Glenn Kessler
Emmy nominations	Three
Former spouse	Debra Messing
Children	One son
Recent television development	Jonestown project with Bill Hader

Who Is Daniel Zelman?

Daniel Zelman is mainly known for writing and producing television drama.

That is the key answer.

Some readers may recognise his name because he was married to actress Debra Messing, but his own professional record goes much further. Zelman’s strongest credits come from television writing, producing, and series creation.

His biggest breakthrough was Damages.

The legal thriller starred Glenn Close and Rose Byrne and became one of FX’s best-known prestige dramas of its period. Zelman created the series with brothers Todd A. Kessler and Glenn Kessler.

The same three writers later created Netflix’s family crime drama Bloodline.

Daniel Zelman’s Education and Early Years

Zelman attended Harvard University, graduating with the Class of 1990.

His time there later connected directly with his television career.

He knew Glenn Kessler during their Harvard years, and both were involved with Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Performing and writing were already part of Zelman’s life before professional television entered the picture.

He then continued his acting training.

Zelman attended the Graduate Acting program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1993.

That background matters.

He did not start as a television executive sitting behind a desk. He learned performance first, which gave him direct experience with actors, scripts, dialogue, and stage production.

His Early Acting Career

Before becoming widely known as a writer, Zelman worked as an actor.

One of his strongest early credits came on Broadway.

He worked in the original Broadway productions of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika during the 1990s.

He served as an understudy for the roles of Joe Pitt and Prior Walter.

That was serious stage work.

Zelman also collected screen acting credits during this part of his career, appearing in television and film before writing gradually became the bigger part of his professional life.

Moving From Acting Into Writing

Zelman’s shift toward screenwriting can be seen in his early film credits.

He co-wrote the 2000 horror film They Nest with John Claflin.

The pair later worked on another studio project.

Zelman received screenplay credit on Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, released in 2004.

He and Claflin were also involved in the story and screenplay for Fool’s Gold, the 2008 adventure-romance starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.

By then, Zelman was no longer simply an actor trying out writing.

Writing had become central.

Damages Changed Daniel Zelman’s Career

Then came Damages.

This was the big one.

Zelman created the legal drama with Todd A. Kessler and Glenn Kessler. The series premiered in 2007 and centred on powerful attorney Patty Hewes, played by Glenn Close, and young lawyer Ellen Parsons, played by Rose Byrne.

The show used a less straightforward storytelling structure than many legal dramas of the period. Episodes often moved between different points in time while slowly explaining what had happened.

Audiences had to pay attention.

Zelman and his collaborators also served as executive producers.

The series ran for five seasons, first on FX and later through Audience Network.

Damages became Zelman’s most important professional credit and brought major awards attention.

Daniel Zelman’s Emmy Nominations

Zelman has received three Primetime Emmy nominations.

In 2008, he was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series as an executive producer of Damages.

That same year, Zelman, Todd A. Kessler, and Glenn Kessler were nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the Damages pilot.

Another Outstanding Drama Series nomination followed in 2009.

The wording matters here.

Zelman is a three-time Emmy nominee, rather than an Emmy winner.

Bloodline Reunited the Damages Creators

Years after Damages began, Zelman teamed up again with Todd A. Kessler and Glenn Kessler.

This time they created Bloodline for Netflix.

The series followed the Rayburn family in the Florida Keys and starred Kyle Chandler, Ben Mendelsohn, Linda Cardellini, Sissy Spacek, and Norbert Leo Butz.

Family secrets drove the story.

Lots of them.

Bloodline ran for three seasons between 2015 and 2017.

The writing team also received Writers Guild recognition, with the show earning a nomination in the New Series category.

For Zelman, Bloodline proved that Damages was not his only major television creation.

Daniel Zelman’s Work on Succession

Zelman later joined the first season of HBO’s Succession as a consulting producer.

He did not create the series.

That distinction should stay clear.

Succession was created by Jesse Armstrong, while Zelman worked as part of the show’s broader creative team during its early period.

He was included among the credited writers connected with the show’s Writers Guild nominations for its first season.

It added another major HBO drama to his career record.

The Game of Thrones Prequel Pilot

Zelman was also attached to HBO’s first planned Game of Thrones prequel pilot.

HBO named him as an executive producer on the project alongside Jane Goldman, George R.R. Martin, and Vince Gerardis.

The pilot was produced.

But HBO did not order it as a full series.

So it should not be described as an aired Game of Thrones spin-off created by Zelman. His verified involvement was as an executive producer on the pilot.

The Border

Another later project connected with Zelman is The Border.

FX ordered a pilot based on Don Winslow’s Cartel Trilogy.

Zelman was attached as a writer, executive producer, and showrunner.

Production records updated in April 2026 listed the pilot as completed.

That does not mean a full television series has been confirmed. The verified status is the completed FX pilot.

Daniel Zelman and Bill Hader’s Jonestown Project

One of Zelman’s more recent reported projects brought him together with Bill Hader.

In April 2025, major entertainment-industry reporting said the pair were developing an HBO drama based around Jim Jones, Peoples Temple, and Jonestown.

Zelman and Hader were reported as co-writers.

They were also expected to act as co-showrunners and executive producers if the project moved ahead.

Later reporting from the Jonestown Institute said the creators had spoken with researchers and Peoples Temple survivors while researching the planned series.

As of the latest verified information used for this profile, the project should be described as in development, rather than as a confirmed released HBO series.

Daniel Zelman and Debra Messing

Daniel Zelman was married to actress Debra Messing, widely known for playing Grace Adler in Will & Grace.

The pair met while studying at New York University.

They married in September 2000.

They later had one son together.

Court-related reporting listed February 2010 as their separation date. Messing filed for divorce in 2012, and the marriage was formally ended by a Los Angeles court judgment in 2016.

Their marriage remains part of Zelman’s public story, but his professional career stands separately from Messing’s acting career.

Why Daniel Zelman’s Career Stands Out

The path is fairly unusual.

Actor first.

Writer next.

Showrunner after that.

Zelman moved from graduate acting training and Broadway work into film screenwriting, then helped create two major television dramas.

Damages remains the work most closely tied to his name.

Bloodline came next and proved that the same writing partnership could build another long-form drama for a very different platform.

His work on Succession, HBO’s abandoned Game of Thrones prequel pilot, The Border, and the planned Jonestown drama also shows that he continued working across high-profile television projects after his two best-known series.

Final Thought

Daniel Zelman is much more than a name connected with a famous former spouse.

His main story is television.

He trained as an actor, worked on Broadway, moved into screenwriting, and eventually became one of the creators behind Damages and Bloodline.

Those two shows remain the strongest markers of his career.

His three Emmy nominations add clear industry recognition, while later work linked him with Succession, Game of Thrones development, The Border, and Bill Hader’s planned Jonestown drama.

It has been a long career.

And much of it happened behind the camera.